This is Bird Note.

The savanna country of Northern Australia is one of the most fire-prone natural habitats in the world,

and its plants have evolved to thrive with frequent, low-intensity blazes.

As a fire sweeps across the savanna, raptors such as as black kites stand or hover near the edge of the flames,

awaiting prey such as grasshoppers and lizards fleeing for safety.

Indigenous Australians have long known that black kites aren't just opportunists.

The birds actually create some of these fires by carrying burning twigs in their talons,

dropping them on a patch of savanna

away from the original wildfire,

and picking off the escaping prey.

In a 2017 study of Australia's fire hawks, researchers collected first-hand accounts of black kites, whistling kites, and brown falcons, intentionally spreading fires. It's thought that setting a new area of blaze allows these fire hawks to feed in a space with fewer rival predators.

It's possible that humans might even have learned how to use fire long ago by watching these birds carrying burning embers.

Today, fire ecologists and land managers

are learning to account for firehawks

in sustainable wildfire management.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein.