Australia...
..a land of diverse and often extreme habitats.
From tropical forests
to rugged mountains
to beaches fringed with turquoise seas.
Its vast expanses
have produced an immense array of birdlife.
And many species found nowhere else in the world.
Some of the fiercest predators here
are Australia's birds of prey.
These highly specialized killers
are powerful,
resourceful and striking.
And they use some impressive weapons...
to survive.
This is the story of Australia's aerial hunters.
One of the best ways to see the sixth largest country in the world...
..is from the air.
This immense land is a continent.
Otherwise it would be considered the world's largest island.
But it has a relatively small population of just under 24 million.
Its vast tracts of uninhabited land
are the perfect open hunting grounds...
..for birds of prey.
This is a pretty good vantage point
to search for some lunch.
Raptors are birds that hunt vertebrates.
Each one is covered in feathers of blacks, grays, whites and browns,
nature's colors of camouflage.
Some hunt during the day,
like falcons, eagles and ospreys.
(Screeching)
Others, like the owls, during the night.
First, their acute vision
detects even the slightest movement from their prey.
Then, with astonishing displays of aerial acrobatics,
they home in on their target.
Finally, they use their feet to strike down their victim
and then crush,
stab or bite it to death.
(Buzzing of flies)
But in the fight to survive, each species of bird of prey
is adapted to hunt in its own individual way...
..from the smallest in the country,
the Australian kestrel,
to the largest, the wedge-tailed eagle.
(Hooting)
(Screeching)
Birds of prey roam over almost every part of the country.
They are powerful predators at the top of the food chain.
And they have a crucial role in maintaining the health of Australia's wildlife.
Their presence keeps the whole system in balance
by controlling numbers further down the food chain.
Some journey in search of food across the country's rivers and lakes.
Others seek out tall forests in which to hide from their prey.
A few choose open farmland as their hunting ground.
The wedge-tailed eagle ranges right across Australia,
from mountains to deserts,
and from rainforests to grasslands.
In fact, one of the few places it doesn't feel at home
is on the ground.
It'll come down to feed.
But once it's earth-bound,
the wedge-tailed eagle looks less like a highly skilled hunter
and more, some say, like a sumo wrestler.
Its thick legs are perfect
for striking down prey as it dives from above.
On the ground, they're somewhat clumsy.
This is an adult female.
She hops from one foot to the other,
trying to gain forward momentum,
and runs into any stirring of wind
that might help her to take off.
Her comic gait transforms into graceful flight.
In the air, the wedge-tailed eagle is magnificent.
This is the bird the Royal Australian Air Force displays on its badge.
One of the largest eagles in the world.
The wingspan of a female wedge-tailed eagle
can reach over seven feet.
And females can weigh just under nine pounds.
It's less than the average house cat.
But this doesn't stop the wedgie, as it's known to Australians,
from hunting some of the country's largest,
and most iconic, creatures.
For around 35 million years,
Australia has been isolated from every other landmass on earth.
Such a span of evolutionary isolation
has led to some extraordinary wildlife,
some of which is found nowhere else on earth.
Strange bear-like creatures with pouches sleep in trees.
Flocks of bright pink birds adorn the branches like clouds of blossom.
Long-limbed herbivores bound across the grass.
Giant flightless birds wander across the plains.
All of them are on the menu for the wedge-tailed eagle.
Right now, the key weapon in this female's armory is sight.
Her excellent eyesight enables her to hunt down small moving targets,
from over half a mile away.
The blood vessels in a raptor's retinas are arranged
so they don't scatter light coming into the eye.
It helps make their vision
the sharpest of any creature on earth.
It can see things no human eye could ever discern.
On the ground below, rodents run through tunnels in the grass,
dribbling urine as they go.
It's thought that the wedge tail has ultraviolet vision
and may be able to distinguish between different species of prey
based on the variation in the ultraviolet absorbance of their urine.
But as many natural surfaces also absorb ultraviolet,
scientists are still trying to determine exactly if, and how,
they target their prey in this way.
Like much about these magnificent birds,
it's a mystery yet to be unraveled.
She soars across the skies, with barely a wingbeat.
Using the upward thrust of rising columns of hot air
helps her conserve energy.
The wedge-tailed eagle's low-energy approach to life
means it can live for several weeks without food.
Soaring effortlessly from one thermal to another,
she continues, unhurried, on her way.
(Hooting)
(Screeching)
While the eagle has a lifestyle perfectly adapted to hunting in daylight,
there are other birds of prey
that have eyes attuned to hunting at dusk
and at night.
This is the barking owl.
It's found all around the edges of the country.
Some owls rely on their sensitive hearing to locate their prey in the dark.
But the barking owl uses its excellent eyesight to hunt during dawn and at dusk.
When it gets dark, its pupils dilate.
In daylight, they contract.
(Twittering)
Some people think this looks a bit like a wink.
Or those who named it did.
Its Latin name is Ninox connivens,
which comes from the Latin for "winking".
Owls are silent hunters.
But scientists have only recently discovered how birds,
such as the barn owl, can fly without making a sound.
What they've observed is that owl wing feathers
are specially adapted to reduce noise,
as the bird cuts through the air,
which means their prey can't hear them coming.
But it's not just the owls that have developed a finely honed hunting technique.
Each Australian bird of prey
has adapted to make a living in a slightly different way.
This is a female kestrel.
She isn't flying for hours in search of food, like the wedgie.
Instead, she sits on her favorite perch,
as she waits for food to come to her.
The Australian kestrel tends to hunt in open farmland,
where scattered trees provide perfect perches.
15 million years ago,
Australia was almost entirely covered in trees.
Today, just over half of the country is farmland,
perfect hunting ground for the kestrel.
As land has been cleared for farming, kestrel numbers are thought to have risen.
Her menu consists mostly of reptiles and grasshoppers.
With tack-sharp vision,
she spots a small skink,
a type of Australian lizard,
and moves out.
The kestrel drops close to the ground.
She appears to hover,
remaining stationary in relation to the ground.
In fact, the kestrel is flying into the wind to give her lift.
She makes her move.
She strikes.
Kestrels pounce on their prey from a close distance,
rather than relying on speed.
They aren't the only raptors to ambush their prey.
But others are less happy about being out in the open
and prefer to hide deep in the forests
in the north, east and south-east of the country.
These are the forests of Queensland.
41 percent of Australia's forests are found in this state.
It's the perfect habitat for one of the country's most stealthy hunters,
a bird found nowhere else but Australia.
A ghost-like presence in the trees,
it is solitary,
secretive
and it ambushes its prey.
The gray goshawk.
Some gray goshawks have gray and white feathers.
Others are covered entirely in white.
This variety is the only pure white bird of prey in the world.
Concealed on a perch high up in the tree canopy,
this female is almost impossible to see.
Silently, she watches, and waits.
Then, she strikes.
Goshawks are the cheetahs of the bird world.
For their kills they use short, sharp bursts of energy.
Carefully, she plucks her prey,
a white-headed pigeon,
and begins her feast.
While the goshawk plays a deadly game of hide and seek,
another bird of prey here
has a hunting technique that's even more extraordinary:
the black-breasted buzzard.
This bird too is found only in Australia,
but hunts out on the grasslands,
as well as the forests.
It keeps a close eye on another of the country's indigenous birds.
One that can be over four times its size
and 45 times its weight:
the emu.
It's not the emu it's after, however...
..but its eggs.
The chances of stealing one of these large emerald ready meals are slim.
The male emu incubates his brood for around 56 days.
During that time he won't ever leave the nest,
not even to eat or drink.
There's no way the buzzard can take on this giant.
Occasionally, however, a buzzard gets lucky with an abandoned egg.
This is its chance.
But now it faces another problem.
The shell of the egg is thick,
thick enough to support the weight of an adult male emu.
So the buzzard has to resort to its own ingenious method of smash and grab.
It's the only raptor in the entire country
that regularly uses a tool to hunt for food.
This behavior comes naturally.
Young buzzards reared away from their parents
still use stones to crack into their meals,
without having been taught.
Hard work is rewarded with a very tasty snack.
No other bird of prey in Australia
uses a secondary tool like this egg-eating specialist.
But every bird of prey comes equipped with a built-in toolkit:
fearsome feet.
These dinosaur-like feet are their first line of defense,
and often attack.
They also help with dismembering prey.
But just as each species tracks down its prey in a different way,
so too do their feet differ.
The talons of the wedge-tailed eagle
are massive and razor-sharp.
It has three powerful toes that face forward.
The inner toe is the sturdiest and opposes the hind toe,
also known as the killer talon.
These allow the bird to grip safely onto trees...
..and to grasp its prey.
The wedge-tailed eagle has talons that are long enough
to puncture the vital organs of virtually any creature in Australia.
And it has a bone-crushing grip.
It's thought the pressure it can exert on its prey
is 200 pounds per square inch.
(Hooting)
(Screeching)
Other birds use their highly specialized feet
for different approaches to aerial hunting.
The eastern osprey has a pair that can help it pursue prey...
..underwater.
In a creek in the Northern Territory,
this bird decides its time for a spot of fishing.
(Screeching)
The osprey is a type of aquatic hawk
that stalks inshore coastal and estuarine waters around Australia.
It has large oil glands that waterproof its dense feathers.
(Screeching)
Which means the osprey isn't afraid of getting wet.
Using its powerful feet and long, curved claws...
(Screeches)
..it hooks its prey.
On the bottom of its feet, spiny projections snag the fish...
..and ensure that its quarry is secure.
The outside toes swivel from the front to the rear of its foot...
..in order to balance the slippery catch as it flies.
This bird hunts and eats more fish than any other Australian bird of prey.
But sometimes the fish aren't for eating.
This male osprey
is performing a series of aerial displays...
..in order to attract a mate.
It's been reported that sometimes these birds carry a fish with them,
as they fly in something imaginatively known as a fish display.
But not today.
(Hooting)
(Screeching)
These wetlands lie at the top of the Northern Territory,
dotted in amongst a vast swathe of dense grass and scattered trees
that runs across the north of the country.
In the winter, there are droughts here.
In the summer, monsoon rains
transform the landscape.
It's a habitat known as tropical savanna.
And it covers almost 20 percent of Australia's mainland.
The brahminy kite patrols these waters.
It too, like the osprey, has feet equipped with spiny barbs.
But it has a rather different way of doing things.
This bird is a scavenger.
It doesn't submerge itself in the water in search of swimming prey.
Instead, it scoops dead food from the surface,
like this floating fish tail.
Sometimes, it'll hook a small live fish.
But it's also adapted to survive on scraps,
and will rob other birds of their catch if it's given the chance.
It's not the only Australian bird of prey that's an opportunist.
The whistling kite is found across the country...
..and it too does what it can to survive.
This one has caught a small rodent.
But another kite wants to steal the meal, rather than hunting for itself.
Its neighbor defends its hard-won catch.
The would-be robber is forced to concede defeat.
It'll have to find another target.
(Hooting)
(Screeching)
Another aerial hunter that will seize its chances with any number of prey
is the brown falcon.
Sometimes it will search for quarry from the air,
but it prefers to hunt from a perch,
or even to stalk on the ground,
using its long legs and short, thick toes.
Its stumpy feet are perfectly adapted to take a firm grip
on some of Australia's most lethal creatures.
This country has over 140 species of snake,
including several of the most venomous in the world.
The falcon has set its sights on a carpet python.
The snake isn't venomous, but it's still a formidable hunter.
Some species of carpet python are capable of crushing a wallaby to death.
That doesn't deter the falcon.
A strong bite to the spine immobilizes the snake,
making it easy prey.
(Hooting)
(Screeching)
In some parts of Australia,
it's been noted that in spring,
the brown falcon eats mostly mammals and birds.
In summer, it changes to hunt insects and reptiles that thrive in the heat.
In winter, it returns to birds and mammals.
The ability to switch its prey
means the brown falcon gives itself the best chance of survival
in a land of harsh extremes.
This is a country with an erratic climate.
At times, parched lands suffer periods of prolonged drought.
At others, the earth drowns under sudden, violent floods.
It's a country with a uniquely high proportion of nutrient-poor soil,
something exacerbated by regular outbreaks of blazingly intense fires.
All Australian wildlife, including birds of prey,
has evolved against a constant backdrop of adversity.
But one of the biggest changes raptors have faced in recent times...
..is man.
Raptors may look fierce.
But their existence is a fragile one.
Wedge-tailed eagles once terrified Australian farmers,
who were convinced by exaggerated reports
that this giant was carrying off lambs and decimating livestock.
There was a bounty on its head until 1968 in Western Australia.
And until 1974 in Queensland.
It's estimated that more than one million wedge-tailed eagles were killed.
Today, it's illegal to hunt the wedge-tailed eagle.
But the species is still vulnerable.
As humans encroach further and further into the habitats of raptors,
we risk clearing areas of prey,
or contaminating the food chain with pesticides and poisons.
There can be benefits to human involvement:
the black-breasted buzzard often feeds on invasive rabbits,
introduced by Europeans in the 18th century.
But many populations of birds of prey, including the buzzard,
are still threatened.
In the arid central lands, that cover more than half of Australia,
12 of 20 carnivorous birds have significantly dropped in numbers.
When their numbers dip, birds of prey struggle to recover quickly,
unlike their smaller relatives.
Compared to raptors, small birds have a higher rate of reproduction.
They tend to begin breeding earlier and produce more young.
Birds of prey tend to live longer,
begin breeding at a later age,
and produce fewer young.
This means that boosting numbers is a slow process.
Should raptors die out, the consequences would be dire,
not just for them, but for the entire ecosystem.
These aerial hunters are often at the top of the food chain
and shape the entire ecological community.
When populations of birds of prey go down,
then the numbers of their prey species go up.
This creates an imbalance in the ecosystem.
If they die off, then the entire system risks collapse.
(Hooting)
(Screeching)
Birds of prey have long been a part of not just Australia's landscape
but its culture and history too.
The relationship between man and raptor is an ancient one here.
The Aboriginal fishing god
was said to be able to change into the form of the white-bellied sea eagle.
Even today, it's the guardian animal
of the Aboriginal people of Wreck Bay, in New South Wales.
The wedge-tailed eagle too has an important cultural role.
At least 5,000 years ago in Western Australia,
the people of Kimberley painted eagles onto a rock shelter.
It's a bird that has always had a strong presence
in Aboriginal custom and mythology.
Children were told to be good and quiet,
or they'd be carried off by a wedge-tailed eagle.
Many traditional stories tell of a fiery encounter...
..between the eagle...
and the crow.
The two were friends.
But the crow displeased the eagle,
and he threw him into the fire as punishment...
..and burnt him.
And that is how the crow came to be black.
Today, there are different tales
about the eagle's fiery temperament
and they are extraordinary.
Some people say they have seen eagles start fires, on purpose.
And not just the eagle, but the brown falcon too.
According to these anecdotes,
these birds pick up smoldering sticks
and use them to start a blaze elsewhere.
(Siren)
The reports have come from
different corners of Australia.
They sound like tall tales.
But they are most likely true.
In 2015, evidence about the brown falcon's pyromaniac tendencies
was presented at the global Raptor Research Foundation Conference.
Ornithologists are yet to decide if such behavior
is being accurately reported by eye-witnesses,
as it's never been photographed or filmed.
But what is certain is that some birds of prey are attracted to fires,
and will take advantage by hunting animals fleeing the flames.
There's no fire here beneath this female wedge-tailed eagle
that will help her with the hunt.
But it's time to feed.
Upon contact with her prey,
she has a third, inner eyelid
that will close to protect her precious sight during any struggle.
Spotting an easy target,
she dives.
The carcass of a red wallaby.
Carrion is easy-pickings for the wedge-tailed eagle.
She uses her bill to pull the wallaby through her feet...
..and the edges of her talons to slice through its flesh.
She can gorge as much as a third of her body weight
in a single sitting.
Such rich pickings soon attract attention.
A pair of wedge-tailed eagles circles overhead.
It's thought, although not proven, that these birds mate for life.
While juvenile eagles and unattached adults tend to wander,
pairs of eagles are highly territorial.
Especially as the breeding season approaches.
They must build up their strength and can't afford to share food.
This single female has encroached on their patch.
The pair rock from side to side, and signal to the would-be usurper
that they have no intention of giving any ground.
The stakes are high.
The intruder could lose her life.
Intruders tend to defer to incumbents.
But she's on the attack.
She launches herself at the pair and they take flight.
The intruder gives chase.
She dives towards her rival.
With her head well back, she pitches both feet forward.
As with her prey, it's her fearsome feet that are her main weapon.
The female puts on enough of a show of strength to drive the pair off.
She is a fighter.
From salt-water crocodiles to venomous snakes,
Australia has many predatory species.
But each Australian raptor proves
that the deadliest hunters aren't all reptiles.
From the brown falcon that can catch snakes...
..to the osprey that dives to kill,
the skies here are filled with aerial hunters.
Each armed with weapons that can kill.
They are the hunters of Australia's skies.
And they must always fight to survive.
♪♪♪