Falcons and kites in Australia have been starting bush fires

This is pretty weird and is not good if it spreads world wide in the future. Clearly these creatures are really smart!!These birds should really be afraid of the fire but they seem to feel in control like we do when we use fire.

It reminds me of the guy who taught crows to find coins in the city streets and put them in his snake machine, they got treat with each coin and he was making good money! Smart creatures all over this planet!

Normally when there is a bush fire small animals are forced out of hiding and fall victim to birds of prey and other predators, but when a fire has been burning for a while, new arrivals to the scene miss out on the main course and end up having to fight with other birds for the leftovers.

To get around this problem, some of the birds have taken to starting fires themselves so that they can get a front row seat and eat whatever they want before any other birds arrive.

Several people, including the firemen who tackle these fires, have witnessed this remarkable behavior and it appears to be a problem that isn't going away anytime soon.

"Reptiles, frogs and insects rush out from the fire, and there are birds that wait in front, right at the foot of the fire, waiting to catch them," said lawyer Bob Gosford.

"Small fires often attract so many birds that there is insufficient fleeing prey for all, so a bird that was being beaten to its lunch might benefit from starting a new fire with less competition."
- See more at: www.unexplained-mysteries.com...

The accounts suggest that the raptors can carry sticks at least 50 meters (about 160 feet) in length and even 200 to 500 meters (about 650 to 1,600 feet). And they do this without the fire dying or singeing their own feathers.

Researchers are currently compiling more evidence for paper that would shed much light on the phenomenon. Apart from studying the pyromaniac activities of these Australian birds, the researchers are also exploring the behavior of their winged counterparts in the American or African savannahs.

www.techtimes.com...


This one does show them catching prey at a fire.

a reply to: SeaWorthy
That is amazing. I haven't checked the link just yet, but it'd be great if there were a video of this behavior. Intelligent critters. Imagine a bird like creature with human intelligence in thousands or millions of years or another planet. Not a serious thought, just for fun.

a reply to: SeaWorthy
Birds aren't stupid. They never cease to amaze me.

originally posted by: Tiamat384
a reply to: SeaWorthy
That is amazing. I haven't checked the link just yet, but it'd be great if there were a video of this behavior. Intelligent critters. Imagine a bird like creature with human intelligence in thousands or millions of years or another planet. Not a serious thought, just for fun.

Looks like they are hoping people will carry cameras and catch them at it, I would bet there are some pictures out there somewhere.

Gosford collected many accounts of raptor-made bush fires from 14 park rangers and from the Aboriginal community in Australia.

"Reptiles, frogs and insects rush out from the fire, and there are birds that wait in front, right at the foot of the fire, waiting to catch them," said Gosford.

www.techtimes.com...

a reply to: SeaWorthy

Why did you cut out the first sentence of the article, that's the most important one.

While nobody has yet been able to record footage of this behavior, the birds are believed to be picking up smoldering sticks and then dropping them over dry brush in an attempt to start fires.

From now on no one who is in a philosophical discussion can use the argument "but other animals don't start fire ! Only humans do !"

But is it really "starting a fire" since they just pick up a smoldering stick ? We also need a video.

a reply to: SeaWorthy
Having checked your link it seems no footage has been captured so I assume that also means no photos were made of the action either. Someone below asked whether it is truly making a fire and I'd argue to an extent it is. At the very least they (the birds) prove to be intelligent enough to use their environment much like early humans.

originally posted by: gosseyn
a reply to: SeaWorthy

Why did you cut out the first sentence of the article, that's the most important one.

While nobody has yet been able to record footage of this behavior, the birds are believed to be picking up smoldering sticks and then dropping them over dry brush in an attempt to start fires.

From now on no one who is in a philosophical discussion can use the argument "but other animals don't start fire ! Only humans do !"

But is it really "starting a fire" since they just pick up a smoldering stick ? We also need a video.

You are correct that sentence is important. I suppose a smoldering stick fire is what Man first must have used from lightning strikes and such. This could be a really negative thing if they all set more fires far and wide for their own feast!

The eagles are being trained to identify and catch quadcopters, which are proving increasingly popular.
This behaviour has been seen unprompted in the wild, with eagles bringing down a quadcopter in Austria last year, and the team has found the birds instinctively look for somewhere to land away from humans.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... ce-insects-say-researchers.html#ixzz3ztLXShVf

Lunch with a nice smoky flavor...Why should the bird care about the fire they can fly so what if the ground beneath them burns to a crisp. They have a back up plan for when all the foods is eaten or burned up...on to the ocean and lakes to get our food now. Birds will be the death of humanity, they will watch us with cold calculating eyes as we burn to death.

a reply to: Tiamat384

There are videos of birds who drop bones from the sky that break once they hit the ground so the bird can eat the marrow

a reply to: gosseyn
Another very interesting fact. Learning much in the last couple days on ATS.

originally posted by: gosseyn
a reply to: Tiamat384

There are videos of birds who drop bones from the sky that break once they hit the ground so the bird can eat the marrow

There are a ton of videos of birds dropping nuts onto highways to be broken by cars but the authorities seem to think it is not so.



Crows Do Not Use Automobiles as Nutcrackers: Putting an Anecdote to the Test
wmpeople.wm.edu...

originally posted by: RainbowPhoenix
Why should the bird care about the fire they can fly so what if the ground beneath them burns to a crisp. They have a back up plan for when all the foods is eaten or burned up...

Well actually, fire has an extremely positive effect on the flora in Australia, it kills off the hardy inedible weed plants and promotes the growth of fresh edible plants. The Aboriginals were aware of this fact and used fire as a form of farming.

Gum tree's actually produce flammable substances in there leaves to promote fire and some acacia species will only germinate after a fire.

I remember a few years back driving at night up the Stuart highway and the Aboriginals were doing controlled burns... a truly amazing experience, to drive for like hundreds of kilometres, with massive fires burning the whole way.

Down south we're afraid of fire and end up constantly having devastatingly brutal bush fires every few years, as a result of excessive undergrowth... so rather than being destructive, seems like these birds are simply promoting what the Australian bush has evolved to do.

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

Down south we're afraid of fire and end up constantly having devastatingly brutal bush fires every few years, as a result of excessive undergrowth... so rather than being destructive, seems like these birds are simply promoting what the Australian bush has evolved to do.

I just finished reading some about this and that they want to start practicing the old aboriginal way of fire control. I sure hope the situation improves we in Calif have the same problem.

Let's hope the animals start burning down some major cities all over the world.

a reply to: Esoterotica
I'm afraid cities aren't made of wood anymore. Though imagine if they were? The film Birds would be truly horrifying then.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

Not buying this one. Sounds like BS.

The bird would have to pick up a 'smouldering stick' from in, or next to, a fire. That'd be an ongoing fire, right?

Why doesn't the bird pick up the fleeing critters from the fire that created the 'smouldering stick?'

Do these observers then pursue the bird to where it drops the 'smouldering stick' to start a new fire??

a reply to: Kandinsky
In order to obtain food without, or with less, competition. There is no hard evidence, only soft, but I don't see any reason not to believe it at the present moment.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: SeaWorthy

Not buying this one. Sounds like BS.

The bird would have to pick up a 'smouldering stick' from in, or next to, a fire. That'd be an ongoing fire, right?

Why doesn't the bird pick up the fleeing critters from the fire that created the 'smouldering stick?'

Do these observers then pursue the bird to where it drops the 'smouldering stick' to start a new fire??

Tales of birds starting fires in the Australian bush have long been told by Indigenous people in Australia according to Bob Gosford, a lawyer in the Northern Territory who is currently working on a Masters degree at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales in the study of Aboriginal knowledge of birds. He recently presented some of his research at the Raptor Research Foundation and the Association for Fire Ecology‘s annual conferences.

Could it be that as in the video in the Op of birds catching prey at a fire, the competition is stiff so they start their own?

I think black kites and brown falcons are sufficiently intelligent to intentionally spread fires by dropping burning embers, because black kites have been seen to drop bread scraps from picnic areas into nearby waterholes to bait fish within striking range.

I saw a video of a crow using french fries to fish. they learn, maybe they can put together the fire food connection.

Learning has occurred...


a reply to: Subaeruginosa

a reply to: SeaWorthy

Birds are intelligent. I believe it.

And it's great for them... ok they may start a fire elsewhere but it's still cool.

That crow in the video above is pretty intelligent too.