Chicken, duck or goose

One of the best ways to view Australian raptors is simply by driving your car through the countryside. They are invariably hovering stationary above a field, perched on fence posts and powerlines keeping an eye out for unwary prey, or they are on the side of the road feasting on the roadkill.

Unfortunately the latter is why many raptors are killed, also being hit by cars. This is particularly true for Wedge-tailed Eagles that cannot get out of the way quick enough as a car approaches.

I recently encountered a Whistling Kite (Haliastur sphenurus), pictured left in the middle of the road feasting on what I assumed was a dead native animal. Upon stopping the Kite flew into a nearby tree. The carrion turned out to be an extremely large form of poultry, pictured below.

Whistling Kites are found in Australia, New Guinea and New Caledonia. They feed on a large range of animals, birds and insects. In summer they hunt live prey but as the weather cools down and there is less food around their diet turns to carrion. People more expert at poultry than I identified the dead bird as a rooster. In this case the carrion was as large as the kite itself. I can only assume that the dead rooster was dropped on the road by a fox.

The dead bird was removed from the road and thrown into a nearby field to avoid a further accident.

One dead bird is enough.