All articles tagged with #bird predation
A 1611 painting Air by Jan Brueghel the Elder, renowned for its detailed menagerie, appears to depict a bat catching a bird in flight. A recent PNAS paper argues this could be the first direct visual evidence of bird-eating behavior by greater noctule bats, suggesting Brueghel may have captured real natural history observations and highlighting a novel link between art and historical ecology.
A 400-year-old painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder secretly depicts a noctule bat with a bird in its mouth, and new PNAS 2026 research confirms that greater noctule bats (Nyctalus lasiopterus) prey on migratory passerines in flight, a behavior only recently documented thanks to modern biologging; the artwork may reflect firsthand observation, and the finding highlights how digitized art collections can reveal surprising scientific data.
Scientists captured a rare recording of Europe's largest bat species, the greater noctule, hunting, killing, and eating a robin mid-flight at high altitude, revealing a previously underestimated predatory behavior in bats. The study highlights the bat's stealth approach and ability to consume prey during flight, contributing to understanding of bat-bird interactions and natural predation.
Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research and the University of Ljubljana observed spotted hyenas in Namibia hunting and feeding on red-billed queleas, a type of passerine bird, at a waterhole in the Etosha National Park. The hyenas were observed chasing flying birds, picking them from the ground or water surface, and swallowing them whole at a rate of approximately one bird every three minutes. This behavior adds to the known variety of the spotted hyena diet and hunting tactics, demonstrating their flexibility and ability to exploit foraging opportunities and obtain food from unusual sources.