The native Australian bird that is making the bushfire crisis worse by picking up embers and dropping them in dry fields to flush out their prey
The Whistling Kite, the Black Kite and the Brown Falcon are all known to use fire as a way to flush out prey from fields in Australia.
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A first-hand account of a sighting by [Philip Waipuldanya Roberts] inspired [bird expert Bob Gosford] to co-author a 2017 report into the raptors in the Northern Territory.
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‘It does seem to be the specific case that they spread fire when there isn’t much fire in the landscape, when resources are scarce, when they’re hungry, so that when you have abundant fire on the landscape- they don’t really need to do anything with existing fires- for example even with cooking fires,’ [Independent researcher Dr Mark Bonta] said.
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‘As a major factor in spreading fires, I wouldn’t think that birds would be a major contributor- they are a real risk when fires are controlled they do cause damage’, Dr Bonta said.
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