I saw one of the coolest things on my way down to Dallas last Thursday. Within a hundred feet or so from my car, hawk fell straight down from the sky onto the median on I35 near Gainsville, TX. If it was an attack manuever, I would have expected a swooping motion. This, however, was straight down, as if it had died in the air. To my surprise the hawk reemerged from the ground flying upward in my rear-view mirror. attack maneuver.
But the thought still lingered with me: Why is it that I've never seen a bird die mid-flight (naturally)? I suppose birds spend most of their time perched. And if they are sick or dying from natural causes, they might not feel well enough to fly.
Posted by Eric Pyle at June 18, 2004 4:11 PM
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Passing Thoughts
This indeed is intresting...Currently having my Baccalaureate in biology and enjoying the general study of Zoology I find this fascinating...Often attacks do have "straight down" motions and not Necessarily a swooping motion. Now one thing that has me quite confused is you said that it "reemerged from the ground" do you mean to say that this bird hit the ground at such a high speed and then flew back up or that it simply moved from your view and then reemerged?
intrested,
James
Posted by: James | June 25, 2004 9:20 AM
James,
Thanks for your comments. By "reemerged from the ground" I meant to say that I saw the hawk fly back up from the ground (proving that it did not suffer from a fatal heart-attack).
Eric
Posted by: Eric Pyle | June 25, 2004 1:44 PM
Hello. My question is simple. Do birds die in flight? I know they can die from the exhaustion of something such as a transcontinental migration but do birds ever just poop out during flight from a heart attack, stroke, etc. and fall to the ground and die.
The reason why I ask is simple. I'm an Auburn university grad and the story behind the Auburn "war eagle" cry is that during a game with the university of Georgia in 1892 a golden eagle was circling the crowd throughout the game and then in the 4th quarter the eagle simply died and fell to the field. The Auburn fans, whose team was trailing at the team, then started yelling "war eagle" and the Auburn football team then rallied and won the game.
I didn't think it was a big deal for a bird to die while in flight, especially given the added stress of 1000 humans below yelling and screaming. I know it sounds like a tall tale but I just thought that since humans die from heart attacks from physical exertion, etc. that it isn't that much of a stretch for a bird to die while in flight.
Is this something that either happens rarely, doesn't happen at all, does happen but is never recorded, or happens more than we think but just isn't normally recorded by camera, etc.?
My friends think I'm a crazy for believing that a bird could die while in flight. I doubt that it simply just happens left and right I would like to know if any naturalists know if this is something that simply happens from time to time due to old age, heart attacks, stroke, other maladies, etc. or if its just crazy to think that a bird just dies in flight from some of the same issues that we die from.
Posted by: vaughn | July 27, 2006 10:19 PM