Brown Falcon at Monarto Zoo
Brown Falcon, Monarto Zoo
A few weeks ago we went with our family to visit Monarto Zoo near our home town of Murray Bridge. This open range zoo is a part of the Adelaide Zoological Gardens and being only a few kilometres down the road from our home we like to visit often. Being a Life Member I like to visit often.
One of the features of the zoo is the large tract of untouched mallee scrub where visitors can walk on the numerous walking trails leading from one enclosure to another. The regular shuttle buses moving around the zoo make this a very attractive part of the visit. All tracks are easily negotiated, even by wheelchair.
Walking through the mallee scrub is a good way to observe many of the local bird species abundant in the area. On this visit I had great views of this Brown Falcon. Normally a reasonable shy bird, this individual decided to pose nicely for a few photos.
Brown Falcon, Monarto Zoo
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These are truly very good bird pictures you have. I am a very avid birdwatcher myself, and I have done a lot of birdwatching in my area. But Florida is a lot different than Australia, it must be amazing birdwatching there. Well Thank you for the pictures and interesting commentary fellow birdwatcher, I will enjoy looking at your blog in the future.
Hi there Surgio,
Welcome to my bird blog about Australian birds. Thank you for your kind words. I have enjoyed watching birds all my life and we have such a wonderful range of beautiful birds here in Australia that it makes the hobby wonderful.
I try to update this blog every day, so I invite you to come back often.
[…] meal. It flew off before I could get a photo, so I’ve used a photo of one taken last year at Monarto Zoo about 10km west of our […]
Hi there,
Great picture! Do you know if this bird hovers in the one spot while flying sometimes? I often see a couple going through our paddocks but haven’t been able to ID them yet. Its whitish and hovers in the one spot when its looking at the ground. Any ideas?
Hi Daniel,
The Brown Falcon tends to hunt by gliding low just over the tree tops looking for unsuspecting prey, like small birds, lizards etc. I cannot ever recall seeing one hover, though my field guide says it can occasionally do that.
What you describe sounds like a Nankeen Kestrel – white underneath and brown on top. They almost always hover over prey – sometimes 10-15 metres in the air or as low as 2 or 3 metres, before dropping straight down on to the prey – mice, reptiles, insects.
The Black-shouldered Kite also behaves like this. They are white underneath and grey on top with a black patch on each wing (“shoulder”).
Both species are common in the Murray Bridge area.
[…] such a brightly coloured bird could easily become easy prey for the local Brown Falcons, Collared Sparrowhawks and […]
[…] the zoo, my father and I saw a wild Brown Falcon while at Monarto Zoo a couple of years back Brown Falcon at Monarto Zoo __________________ Sim' Technical support: please post in the Help and Feedback Forum. […]