What can be better than having natural pest control around? What am I talking about? Well, it is about having a raptor around to take care of pesky rodents. In this case the raptor is a Shikra.

I had been hearing and sometimes seeing a few Shikras around my around for a while. Before I had even written a post about them. You can read about it here. It was another day and I was hearing a lot of Shikra calls around my house. I noticed one fly across the tree in response to another one calling. Some time later I went for a short walk around my garden. I do this many a time, looking for any interesting spiders and insects. This time when I scanned the trees behind my house, I noticed a Shikra perched on branch. It seemed to be eating something. I quickly ran back into the house to get my binoculars and camera to capture the action.

Back in the garden, I peered at Shikra through my binoculars. It was an adult female; notice the yellow coloured eyes. The catch was a rat. It continued to stay on the branch eating it. Here are some photos of it in action:

Well, the Shikra was doing its role of an apex predator. It was contributing to nature’s way of controlling the population of rodents. I thanked it for its service and left it to enjoy its spoils unobserved further.

Video

Here is a short video I captured of it in action.

Such acts are surely happening all around us, especially if you have a decent amount of trees around. One just needs to listen as well as see.

I also have a pair of Indian Scops-Owls that I am sure is also helping maintain the balance. You can read about them here.

Have you encountered any such instances in your neighbourhood? Tell me about it in the comments.