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Moville and surrounding area have numerous different breeds
of bird. Starting with the magnificent Swan to the tiniest
Coal Tit.
Heron can be seen walking along the shoreline of Moville,
along with other common seashore birds such as the Guillemot,
the puffin, the great black backed Gull, (numerous Gulls).
Birds of the ocean habitually spend more time on the wing
than land birds.
Gannets are plentiful on the northern coast. This large white
bird, with its black-tipped wings, buff coloured head and
neck, clear blue eyes, and a wing spread of six feet, is most
interesting to watch as it soars gracefully over the sea.
The gannet is the largest of all Irish sea birds, and is easily
first in the strength of its flight. It has an airspeed of
forty-five miles an hour or thereabouts.
Birds of Prey are principally represented by the Sparrow-hawk
and kestrel. Peregrine falcons are seen occasionally and the
downward swoop of this bird is a sight not to be forgotten.
The Cormorant, which is a fish eater, and the most greedy
feeder of all, is exceedingly numerous. A cormorant on every
day of its life can eat as much fish as three times its own
weight of five or six pounds. The Shag or green cormorant,
with its recurved crest, is also very common round our coast.
Geese, wildfowl and wild ducks include the red-brested merganser,
sheduck, mallard, scoter and eider-duck find their way to
Inishowen.
About one-third of our birds are migratory and the remainder
native. Some of the migratory birds can travel at a marvelous
speed, reaching at times over a hundred miles an hour. The
swallow could fly from North Africa to Inishowen in twelve
hours (although its average speed is nearer thirty miles an
hour.
The golden eagle, at certain distances, has been estimated
to have a speed of a hundred and twenty miles an hour - for
three and a half miles with a very slight cross wind from
the west. The golden eagle became extinct in Ireland in 1910,
and has now been reintroduced to Glenveagh Nation Park, Donegal.
Other birds estimated to be able to exceed a hundred miles
per hour include the hobby, pigeon, guillemot and little auk.
Our only native bird believed to be able to fly backwards
is the raven. It does so in its Spring courtship antics.
May 2007 A wild Golden Eagle chick has hatched in
Glenveagh National Park Donegal for the first time since 1910.
To read more visit www.goldeneagle.ie.
Crows are accounted the most intelligent of all birds. Swans
live the longest, they have been known to attain their second
century.
Amongst other land birds may be mentioned the raven, the
rook, the magpie, the hooded crow, the chough, the starling,
the wren, the green plover, the curlew, the woodpigeon, the
rockpigeon, the turtledove.
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