Several years ago I worked in a high rise office in Las Colinas (Irving). Two red-tails were flying at basically my eye level when one dove at the other. The bottom bird rolled on its back and they locked talons. The energy from the top bird's dive threw them into a head over tail roll. After about the 2nd or 3rd roll they both extended their wings which stopped the forward roll and changed it into a downward spin. They released before they hit the ground. Gilbert Wade ghwade3@xxxxxxxxx 817 925-3801 Certified Music Practitioner ( o ) ===::: Music for Healing and Transition Program (www.mhtp.org) Creative Artist in Residence Musician Cooks Childrens Medical Center, Fort Worth, Texas ________________________________ From: Ian Layton <ilayton@xxxxxxxxx> To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 3:03 PM Subject: Re: [texbirds] Raptors - Locking Talons during fight and falling into Death Spiral Mark, During the Lost Pines CBC this past December (12/17/2011) , my wife, Cindy and I along with Jim Giocomo of American Bird Conservancy observed this behavior. It occurred over the Colorado River in eastern Travis County (north of Garfield), which was the extreme western part of our circle. We assumed it was the pair that have been nesting just west of Webberville. It occurred pretty early in the day. All three of us observed this both through binoculars and scope. Fascinating and awe-inspiring! Unfortunately, no pictures or video :-( On 4/22/2012 2:28 PM, Mark B Bartosik wrote: > Bald Eagles are well known for locking talons during the courtship (but can > also do that during fight) and falling into what is called “Death Spiral” > (btw accidental deaths during courtship were recorded). Evidently this event > is not often photographed as only a small number of photos and even less > videos are posted on the internet. I do not really expect replies (absent > of answers is good info anyway) but have a question: Did anybody observed > this behavior here in Texas? I am quite interested to see it in nature for > comparison but have no desire to chase eagles in Alaska. I did see once > White-tailed Kite pair locking talons during courtship in BNWR but this was > a very distant look. I am trying to (finally) work on a lot of Osprey photos > (I am behind a few years) and was working among other things on > illustrations showing their aggressive encounters. If I want to take a look, > here are a few examples of locking talons during fights; death spirals, etc: > > Locking Talons during the strike moment: > > http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/142839012 > > Death Spirals (with locked talons): > > http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/142839014 > > http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/142842562 > > http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/142839031 > > http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/142839032 > > http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/142839034 > > > Also moments of defensive mid-air postures with outstretched talons: > > http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/142784852 > > http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/142839021 > > Animated movements: > > http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/142784845 > > http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/142839141 > > Many more photos can be found in folders I am working on now at this link: > > http://www.pbase.com/mbb/from_the_field > > Mark B Bartosik > Houston, Texas > > TEXBIRDS help file and Texas birding links at: > http://moonmountaingroup.com/texbirds > > -- Ian M. Layton Cedar Creek Bastrop County, TX TEXBIRDS help file and Texas birding links at: http://moonmountaingroup.com/texbi TEXBIRDS help file and Texas birding links at: http://moonmountaingroup.com/texbirds rds Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at //www.freelists.org/list/texbirds