Video shows wild raptor feeding from Durban man’s hand
Whether he is gaining social media fame by baring his fingers to the talons of a swooping raptor or clicking away on his hand-held camera while piloting a plane, Steve McCurrach’s life is filled with natural highs.
A home video showing birds of prey swooping in to snatch meaty treats from the outstretched hand of a man standing on a Durban balcony has wowed many a birder, nature lover and even people who refer to garden birds as ‘little brown jobs’.
The enchanting video has been doing the rounds on social media, attracting more than 80 000 views on YouTube and being ‘forwarded many times’ on WhatsApp.
Aerial photographer Steve McCurrach recorded the video at his home in Westville in November. In it, he explains how the Yellow-billed Kite (Milvus aegyptius) migrates and returns to the same area year after year. The footage shows the majestic birds swooping in and plucking raw chicken necks from his hand, or catching them mid-flight when tossed into the air.
While he has some worry about his fingers being punctured, he appreciates the kites’ accuracy and has come to develop a trust in their abilities.
“I have been watching them with intrigue at this location for some 30 years,” he says.
The steep, north-facing ridge, coupled with a north-easterly wind, create the perfect conditions for soaring, he says.
“I once counted 16 of them, all climbing and circling in one thermal,” McCurrach elaborates.
Interestingly, he is certain that he has identified three specific individuals that have been returning to the same Palmiet Valley for some five years.
Although he notes that there has been a decline in numbers in recent years, this has not been at an alarming rate.
The Yellow-billed Kite is one of the first migratory birds to arrive in Southern Africa each spring (early August). “They arrive from central-east Africa and as far north as south-west Asia each year,” says McCurrach.
According to McCurrach, frogs, rodents and ‘roadkill’ form the biggest part of the kites’ diet.
“They have even been known to hawk flying ants out of the sky,” he says.
A man of many talents
McCurrach has been a keen birder since his youth, ‘but never to the extent of being an obsessed twitcher’, he says. A bike safari operator, he does admit, however, to happily stopping a biking tour to look up a bird on his Robert’s Bird Guide app!
Birding is not his only interest, though. McCurrach wears several hats and is a licensed tour guide for Adventure Bike Safaris, a photographer specialising in aerial photography and also a director of the Bateleurs, a registered NGO providing free aerial support services to conservation and environmental organisations.
He has been a professional aerial photographer for more than 15 years and is known for holding his camera by hand, rather than using a mount – while piloting his plane.
McCurrach describes the Bateleurs as an ‘environmental air force’ and this is where his love of nature, flying and photography culminates. “We do tremendously good work and have served South African conservation for over 23 years.
“I liken us to a three-legged stool – the pilots, the conservationists and the supporters. If you remove one leg, then the stool falls over and there’s no more Bateleurs, so we are always in need of adding to each leg!”
The Bateleurs voluntarily lend their time, aircraft and flying for a diverse manner of conservation causes.
The pilots love to fly for a good cause and to ‘give up something for king and country’, says McCurrach. “This in turn empowers the conservationist to do their good work and then, lastly, the philanthropist or corporate sponsor has the tax-deductible satisfaction of involvement… the perfect partnership,” he says.
The Bateleurs recently put together a ‘sizzle reel’ depicting ‘a day in the life of a Bateleurs pilot’. This was done with the support of a United States producer who will be pitching it to various big channels in an attempt to ‘sell’ them on a Series.
In the sizzle reel, McCurrach flies his Rainbow Cheetah aircraft, a light sport aircraft, from his base airfield at Cato Ridge, via Durban and northwards to Zululand, heading off to capture raw material for a proposed documentary.
The reel is currently being edited and the producer hopes that the voice-overs with South African accents will add character and value!
