So: Many experts now agree ... some birds use fire as a weapon.

[dann]

How so?

[dann]

Originally Posted by dann

Quote:

He [Penn State geographer Dr. Mark Bonta] plans to travel to Australia soon to assist Gosford [an Australian lawyer who represents the interests of aboriginal people in Australia’s Northern Territory] with the field study research, and hopes that they’ll gather photographic evidence of the behavior during this year’s Northern Australian fire season, which (due to El Nino) is predicted to be long and severe.
Can Birds Actually Start Forest Fires? (Audubon, Feb 22, 2016)

Notice that another attempt was made in 2018, and this time they didn't depend on the random fires and their random locations. This time it was controlled and organized:

Quote:

Those Gosford and his colleagues solicited photos and videos of the behavior, they haven't yet received any usable footage. They hope to document the behavior in the field later this year, by closely studying a series of control burns administered by local firefighters.
"The more word gets out on this, the better," says Bonta. "It's only a matter of time."
Why These Birds Carry Flames in Their Beaks (NatGeo, Jan 8, 2018)

That it's only a matter of time is what believers always say to keep their hopes and dreams alive. (If you don't believe me, try googling "it's only a matter of time" + Bigfoot. In fact, do so even if you do believe me!)
The information about controlled fires administered by firefighters ruins the idea of out-of-control fires where videographers can't be allowed to get in the way of hardworking professionals who are busy trying to prevent the fire from spreading.

I think it's safe to assume that no raptors were caught on video spreading fire in 2018 in spite of a whole series of controlled burns.

So what happened after Bonta, Gosford et al. had been "closely studying a series of control burns administered by local firefighters"?, you may well ask:
Not much, apparently, and probably nothing at all. The fires burned and the birds got their meal of roasted vertebrates and invertebrates.

Six months after the project was announced, Gosford pretended that evidence for the fire-spreading birds was a done deal and that all that was missing was proof that the birds do it deliberately:

Quote:

The burning question in the research is whether the raptors “intend” to spread the fire, or whether the act is an accident, say, by the raptor having mistaken the stick for food.
Mr Gosford suggests the “intent of raptors is to spread fire to unburned locations... to flush out prey via flames or smoke”.
(...)
“As usual (with media) there’s a brief hot flare,” Mr Gosford said.
“Then you’ve got to get on with the rest of your life.”
(...)
But many questions remain to be answered, and it is to those his research now turns.
For example, how does one “prove” a bird’s intent for the act of spreading the fire?
Bird researcher Bob Gosford explains theory on fire hawks (The Weekly Times, July 18, 2018)

Well, before we get on to that interesting question, it would be nice to see actual evidence, that birds spread fire in the first place. It's a little like the problem with homeopathy: Why worry about how it is supposed to work when it has never been shown to actually work? (In spite of thousands of eyewitness reports claiming that it works!)

But let's congratulate Bonta, Gosford & Co:
That's the spirit!
'We didn't get the the footage to prove that raptors spread fire, so now we pretend that it's not a problem that we didn't, and that the only problem is that we didn't prove intentionality! And so we can get on with our lives, and the rest is up to you, dear reader: Please help us prove we're right!'

Quote:

If you have a report, footage or pictures of birds spreading fire Bob Gosford and his colleagues would love to hear from you. He can be contacted by email at birdknowledge@gmail.com.

Yes, I don't doubt that Bob and his colleagues would love for you to do that!