Video of Australasian Harrier attacking Tui chicks
This is the video of the hawk attack which was captured in HD on a Nikon D3s.
The light was not great that day so I decided to stop shooting stills and capture video instead. Usually when a parent arrived I would have about a seconds warning when I’d hear a bird land a short distance away before bouncing in with a fresh feed of insects – this moment was no different and I started recording. You can see from this clip, the attack occured so quickly and neither the chicks nor myself had any idea what was happening until it was way too late.
Witnessing this event and the Harrier flying off into the distance with the Tui chick clutched in its talons was a very surreal moment. And had I not been there to witness this, it’s likely the entire nest would’ve been cleaned out by the Hawk which returned three more times before Russell Evans (Bush Haven Bird Rescue) and I had managed to get a net in place above the nest.
