"When that area was burnt out the process was repeated elsewhere. The birds' behaviour has led to the nicknames 'arson raptors' or 'firehawks' as they are seen spreading fires by picking up flaming sticks and dropping them into dry fields to scare out smaller animals. Australia is being ravaged by the worst wildfires seen in decades, with large swaths of the country devastated since the fire season began in July. 'If [hawks] have missed the prey and perhaps grabbed a stick... they will then drop that stick or rock. ': Watchdog says seven popular models - including British-built Nissan Qashqai and...The Crown: Olivia Colman is the spitting image of Queen Elizabeth II as she recreates Trooping Of The Colour...RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Lose £££s on Dishi Rishi's 3:4 diet How Covid-19 helped the British corner shop: Convenience stores see growth DOUBLE compared to 2019 as...Half term holiday chaos feared as BA staff 'decide they may hold strike ballot over job cuts'Jeremy Clarkson reveals 'best ever Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The Whistling Kite, the Black Kite and the Brown Falcon have been nicknamed 'firehawk' (pictured) because of their unusual behaviour in spreading fire to capture small prey Field work in the Northern Territory in May 2018 is hoping to build on existing research to get a better handle on the way the species’ use smoke and fire.The research has focused on the Northern Territory’s tropical zone but there have been reports from around Queensland and Western Australia of similar patterns.Independent Researcher Dr Mark Bonta told the Daily Mail Australia it’s fairly widespread knowledge among Indigenous communities.‘I haven’t found an indigenous group that I’ve contacted that isn’t aware of it and a lot of these non-indigenous firefighters in some of these communities are familiar with it,’ he said.But he said the birds are likely to cause more damage outside of traditional fire seasons.‘It does seem to be the specific case that they spread fire when there isn’t much fire in the landscape, when resources are scarce, when they’re hungry, so that when you have abundant fire on the landscape- they don’t really need to do anything with existing fires- for example even with cooking fires,’ he said.But researchers are scared the ‘fire-bug’ reputation of the native Australian animal could cause people to start killing them. "Observers report both solo and cooperative attempts, often successful, to spread wildfires intentionally via single-occasion or repeated transport of burning sticks in talons or beaks," they wrote.After successfully spreading the fire, the "firehawks" are able to pick out fleeing prey or mung on the charred remains of those critters who didn't make it out in time.But while this report is quite rightly making waves now, the story isn't exactly new. A number of native Australian birds are making the bushfire crisis worse. And even if you've managed to live in Australia without developing a crippling fear of birds, this is still going to be confronting.Because while you might be able to ward off some of the flying demons with a party-blower-helmet like the bloke in the video above, there’s not much you can do when they start dropping fire.

Birds who arm themselves with fire – classic Australia. As it turns out, some Australian birds of prey actively spread bushfires to smoke out their victims and barbecue their food.Birds who arm themselves with fire – classic Australia.As it turns out, there are three "fire-foraging raptors" who demonstrate this diabolical arsonist behaviour, being the black kite, the whistling kite and the brown falcon.Reports indicate this kind of thing has been going on in the NT, Queensland and WA for hundreds of years.But this phenomenon is going viral right now after The story points to a new study published in the in the Mark Bonta, Robert Gosford, Dick Eussen, Nathan Ferguson, Erana Loveless, and Maxwell Witwer combined their efforts to produce the report, which kicks off with one heck of a bang. "I firmly believe that for science and land management, if there was greater recognition of it, we’d be a much better place.