Rahul Rohitashwa

To acquire food animals use different tactics and techniques like searching, hunting, camouflaging and hoarding to fill their belly. There are also animals, especially some species of birds, which do not believe in wasting their time and energy in searching and foraging for food, rather they chase, harass and steal food from other birds and animals. This strange and unusual behavior is called kleptoparasitism or food stealing. Such birds are also called “the winged pirates of the avian world”.

Kleptoparasitism to acquire food is quite common in nature occurring from mollusks to mammals and quite common in several species of birds. Birds like skuas and frigate birds obtain a large proportion of their food by kleptoparasitism.

It is a typical and curious kind of behavior differing from foraging, predation and parasitism. The stealing of food items already procured by other bird is a widespread foraging strategy in many species of birds, yet the exact reasons why some taxa have evolved this strategy still remains unresolved.

In a paper, Kleptoparasitism in Seabirds published in 1987, researcher RW Furmess states that kleptoparasitism or food-stealing is widespread among birds and is an important feeding technique of some families of seabirds, notably in Frigate birds, Skuas, Gulls and Terns. He has speculated that there may be some structural adaptations associated with this feeding technique, but till date no such evidences have been found…read more on NOPR