Here’s an amazing video clip of a white-tailed eagle being released from the top of the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, and finding its handler from over 2,700 feet up. Flixxy reports:
An imperial eagle named Darshan captured phenomenal views of the capital of the United Arab Emirates while taking cues from his trainer on the ground. The eagle flight was arranged by the nature conservation group Freedom Conservation with the purpose of drawing attention to eagle conservation.
There’s more at the link.
Here’s a shortened, edited version of the video. Watch it in full-screen mode for best results.
The full-length, almost 6-minute video can be found here, if you’d like to watch it.
I’m astonished that the bird’s eyesight was good enough to pick out its handler from that high up. Clearly, eagles see rather better than I do!
Peter
Well yeah, it's also a lot younger… I'm certain that has nothing to do with it!
Eyesight on the big birds, carrion eaters and such, seem to be incredible. I recall reading a few years ago about vultures, that testing revealed they were attracted to targets from 1000' AGL by the presence of flies buzzing around the carcasses. It was originally thought that they had an exceptional sense of smell for finding meals.
Dubai isn't the capital of the United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi is.
I think the large red square with flags may have helped…that was visible even with the crummy view from the portable camera. Of course, focusing on the trainer from that high once was located is quite a feat.