acrylic on illustration board 10" x 8" $2,000. One of the smallest birds of prey, the sparrow-sized Black-thighed Falconet (Microhierax fringillarius) is a common forest bird from southern Myanmar throughout the Malay Peninsula, and on Singapore, Sumatra, Borneo, northern Sulawesi, Java and Bali. It feeds mainly on large flying insects like dragonflies and cicadas, flying out from a perch, snatching them out of the air with their feet, then returning to the perch to feed. This diet is supplemented by the occasional small reptile, rodent or bird, and Black-thighed Falconets have been recorded taking wading birds as much as twice their own weight. The female lays three or four white eggs in a tree cavity, usually an abandoned barbet nest. |
