Kanha National Park

Hawks are a rather large group of birds of prey that are diurnal. They belong to the family Accipitridae and are widely distributed geographically and vary in size. The Indian Hawk is a small size predator found in forests and dry areas. The hawks occupy every type of habitat in India from grasslands and fields to forests and wetlands. But they prefer open areas as it is most suited for their hunting style.

On the Lefebvre IQ scale based on innovations in feeding habits of birds as designed by the famed Canadian ornithologist Louis Lefebvre, hawks are among the most intelligent birds.

Like most birds, hawks are also tetrachromats having four types of colour receptors or cone cells in the eyes giving them the ability to perceive even the ultraviolet spectrum along with the ability to detect polarized light and magnetic fields and an ability to magnify the central field of vision thanks to its highly visual-centric brain. Thus the aphorism vision of a hawk or hawkeye.

Being predatory birds, hawks are of course excellent hunters, aided by their superlative vision. They prefer hunting in open fields so that they can swoop in stealthily and forcefully, killing the prey with its talon. Interestingly, female hawks are larger in size. The hawk's preferred time for hunting is usually just before nightfall when daylight is reducing. Perhaps, its ability to perceive polarized light gives it an advantage over the unwitting prey. The open fields around the Keoladeo National Park as well as the buffer zones of Kanha National Park provide ideal hunting grounds for hawks. You can track their graceful gliding and quick dive and swoop for a kill guided by our expert birders who will teach you the correct way to use equipment such as binoculars and spotting scopes.