Tense encounter between Egyptian Vulture and Booted Eagle

Collecting useful photographic material for our report on the beautiful European Bee-eaters is turning out to be rather difficult. Fortunately, there are many bird species to spot near this secret location, so we are not bored for a second.

An example of a spectacular visitor was a Purple Heron, which casually landed on the top of a tree near the water. Our camouflage worked perfectly and the heron did not notice our presence at all. The Purple Heron is much rarer than the Grey Heron, but I have observed it remarkably often in the last couple of weeks.

Purple Heron

The presence of a breeding pair of Western Olivaceous Warblers, a species I see on average only once a year, makes it difficult to stay focused for hours on end until there is some action near the Bee-eater nest. The parent birds constantly fly in with food for their four young and of course regularly attract our attention.

The Purple Heron flew over again a few hours later

After waiting for quite some time almost fruitlessly at the same spot it was time to move on. At first barely anything happened there either, but everything changed after the passage of a dozen or so Griffon Vultures.

One of the silently flying Griffon Vultures

Shortly after the passage of these large birds I noticed a strange scene in the sky: first I saw a bird of prey carrying GPS equipment with a rat between its sharp claws. It turned out to be an Egyptian Vulture, an endangered species that you will only find with a bit of luck, especially in this place.

Egyptian Vulture with a rat in its claws

However, the vulture, an immature specimen, soon got into a serious fight with a Booted Eagle, which was clearly interested in the prey that the vulture was holding between its talons.

The vulture gets an unwanted visitor

The Egyptian Vulture was clearly determined to fiercely defend its catch, but was met with several dives from the persistent Booted Eagle.

There comes the Booted Eagle at full speed

This attack is only narrowly repelled

The Egyptian Vulture is an agile flyer, but I wasn’t sure if it would be a match for a determined Booted Eagle. Egyptian Vultures are slightly larger, but they are not real hunters, unlike Booted Eagles. The battle above my head kept me spellbound for several minutes as I tried to capture everything with my camera as best I could.

The Egyptian Vulture is forced to look in all directions

...and sees this hanging over its head

Here comes the Booted Eagle again!

Will the eagle succeed in its plan this time?

The birds almost touch each other with their wings

The Egyptian Vulture proves to be agile enough

After a bickering that went on for minutes, the Booted Eagle decided to give up. The immature vulture had at least gained another experience richer and could now enjoy its meal a little further away.

This hidden spot has a huge variety of bird species to offer. In addition to a Black-winged Kite, I also saw a pair of Kestrels flying over today.

Female Kestrel

There will be plenty of opportunities to enjoy the birdlife in this place, as we will be gathering more footage for our Bee-eater documentary.