Busy chasing squirrels, the flame-tailed eagle crashed into the wall

The exciting escape of the squirrel before the pursuit of the fire-tailed hawk was captured by a security camera mounted on the door of a house in Urbana, Illinois.

In the video, the squirrel appears from the right side of the frame and runs towards the wall. Then it stopped for a moment, seemingly looking for a way out, and then the squirrel quickly ducked under the wall and disappeared.

The squirrel's sudden escape caused the fire-tailed eagle chasing behind to miss and have an accident. The flaming-tailed eagle rushed like an 'arrow' into the wall. The impact was quite strong, so much so that viewers of the video can also hear a rumble. After the crash, the flaming-tailed eagle was stunned but uninjured. After 'collecting', it flapped its wings and flew away.

The homeowner, after watching the video, said that the wall had a gap below, the squirrel had escaped through it.

The fire-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is a live raptor. They live in fields or deserts, areas of high places to perch and track prey. This species is also well adapted to mountainous areas, tropical rainforests or even in human environments.

The flaming-tailed falcon has sharp eyes and has a normal flight speed of about 32 to 64 km/h, which can increase to 190 km/h when launched from above. Therefore, flamingos are effective hunters.

The fire-tailed falcon will eat almost any small animal it encounters, from small mammals such as rodents including squirrels and mice, to reptiles, fish, amphibians and invertebrates.

Marvin Fry

Update 24 July 2023