--- title: Falcons, hawks, kites, ospreys and vultures — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Falcons, hawks, kites, ospreys and vultures», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Birds of prey come in many shapes, each made for its own job. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Falcons, hawks, kites, ospreys and vul… # Falcons, hawks, kites, ospreys and vultures Lesson 324 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 19 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/0/) — Birds of prey come in many shapes, each made for its own job. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/1/) — The peregrine falcon is a missile, the kestrel a helicopter, the sparrowhawk a hedge-hopping ambusher, the osprey a fishing hook and the vulture a flying clean-up crew. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/2/) — Picture a kestrel over a motorway verge: it faces the wind, flaps fast and holds its head perfectly still while it watches the grass for a vole. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/3/) — Then it drops. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/4/) — Looks can fool you. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/5/) — Falcons look like hawks, but DNA, the tiny instructions inside every living cell, shows they are closer cousins of parrots and songbirds. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/6/) — They look alike because they do the same job, hunting. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/7/) — Vultures are not villains. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/8/) — Cartoon vultures circle over a lost traveller, waiting, but real ones circle to ride warm rising air while they search for animals that are already dead, and without them dead animals rot and spread disease. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/9/) — In a steep dive a peregrine falcon can go over 300 kilometres an hour, the fastest of any animal. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/10/) — DNA studies show falcons are closer relatives of parrots and songbirds than of hawks and eagles; they look alike because they do the same job. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/11/) — Kestrels hover by flapping into the wind while keeping the head still, watching for voles and mice, and scientists reported they can see ultraviolet light, which may make vole wee trails glow. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/12/) — Sparrowhawks hunt garden birds by surprise, darting low along hedges, and the female is about twice as heavy as the male. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/13/) — Red kites, with forked tails, nearly died out in Britain, leaving only a few pairs in Wales; from 1989 people brought kites in from other countries, and now there are thousands. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/15/) — An osprey can turn one outer toe backwards, giving two toes forward and two back to grip slippery fish, and it carries the fish head forward like a torpedo. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/17/) — A vulture's bald head stays cleaner when pushed inside a carcass, and its very strong stomach acid kills most germs in rotten meat. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/18/) — In India a medicine given to cattle poisoned the vultures that ate dead cattle, and almost all of them died; dead animals lay rotting and stray dogs and rats increased, and the medicine was then banned for cattle. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/19/) — The bearded vulture eats mostly bones and drops big ones onto rocks from high up to crack them. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/324-falcons-hawks-kites-ospreys-and-vultures/20/) — Vultures circle to ride rising warm air and search wide areas; they do not attack living people, and when one drops down, others come from far away. - ← previous: [Eagles: golden eagles, harpy eagles, Steller's sea eagles and eagle eyes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/323-eagles-golden-eagles-harpy-eagles-stellers-sea-eagles-and-eagle-eyes/) - next →: [Choosing a pet: the questions to ask first](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/325-choosing-a-pet-the-questions-to-ask-first/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)