A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey

by Jonathan Meiburg

I was contemplating the blue-black water stretching away toward Antarctica when I heard a rush of wings and a faint clicking of talons on the shale, and turned to face a pair of young striated caracaras—the first I’d ever seen. Unlike the penguins and shags, they were unmistakably interested in me; one took a few steps in my direction and cocked its head like a dog. A gift seemed appropriate, but I didn’t have any food, so I fished a pen from my pocket and dropped it on the ground. The two birds gazed at it for a moment, as if deciding what to do, and then one stepped forward to seize the pen with its large, dexterous foot—an almost parrot-like gesture—and looked up at me, as if to say Is this all you’ve got? Then its companion lunged for the pen, flapping its wings and screeching, and the tumbling pair chased each other over the lip of the cliff.