One Falcon Colony Stores Live Birds for Later Meals

In Morocco, one colony of Eleonora’s falcons has been observed plucking flight feathers from live small birds and wedging them into rock crevices as a fresh food reserve.

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Eleonora’s falcons have an unusual breeding strategy tied closely to bird migration. They breed unusually late in the summer, when large numbers of small migratory birds cross the Mediterranean on their way toward Africa. During the breeding season, birds become an important food source for both adults and chicks. Researchers have observed that, at one colony in Morocco, some captured birds were kept alive inside deep rock cavities after their flight and tail feathers had been removed or the birds had been wedged into spaces too tight for them to escape. The behavior was interpreted as a form of food storage. Keeping prey alive could provide a fresh meal later, since a dead bird left unused can dry out quickly. The observations were reported from fieldwork on the Mogador Islands in 2014 and published in 2015. The evidence is specific to this observed colony and does not establish that every Eleonora’s falcon behaves this way. More broadly, the species is highly adapted to seasonal migration, with research showing that its diet changes with the availability of migrating birds. This makes the behavior a striking example of how predator behavior can be closely linked to seasonal food supplies.

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