Philippine Falconet – 1, Click Beetle – 0

This is a Philippine Falconet, our country's smallest endemic raptor, devouring a click beetle. It first started with tearing off the head, then slowly dismembering the poor beetle's legs while it was still alive and kicking (literally). When the beetle was dead, the cute but deadly falconet started to chow down on the juicy inside of the beetle while clamping anh holding the beetle's exoskeleton in its powerful claws like a kid holding an ice cream cone. This endemic is often observed hawking insects from a dead tree outside TREES Hostel right at the start of the Forestry Trail at Mt. Makiling in UP Los Banos. At the time this video was taken, there were a total of 8 falconets perched on the tree! Philippine Falconet, Microhierax erythrogenys December 2011, Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve, Laguna, Luzon, Philippines