A hawk kills my pigeon

[lew]

I keep a bird feeder in my backyard and always have plenty of birds around with chicadees, sparrows, cardinals, blue jays and up to 50 mourning doves here constantely. I also have a few pigeons that feed here too.

 

I happened to look out the back window this afternoon and couldn't believe what I saw, there was a huge hawk sitting on the ground, under the feeder, devouring a pigeon.

 

I went and got my camera hoping to get a picture thru the glass, but as soon as the hawk saw the movement he flew into a nearby tree. There was nothing left of the pigeon except the 2 wings, a few bones and plenty of feathers and blood scattered around on the ground.

 

I don't know what kind of hawk it was but he was very big and I see quite a few of them around here, but this is the 1st time they've attacked my birds.

 

I don't have my new camera set up yet but here's a shot from the old one, but unfortunately the hawk was about 100' away and didn't come out too well.

 

........Just below dead center.........

 

 

 

 

This is what's left of the pigeon and hopefully the picture doesn't offend anyone.

 

Definetely survival of the fittest......

 

 

[LeXXington]

Wish there were a couple hawks in our area, Pigeons roosting everywhere they make a terrible mess!!!

 

I would have loved to see the "Take Down" I hear its really cool to see

[Whopper]

Tried to blow up the pic so I could tell what kind it was and nada

 

We have a lot of Red Tails in the area

 

Better keep Marvin inside!

[lew]

Better keep Marvin inside!

 

You've got that right Phil, that bird was bigger than Marvin

[Joey]

I saw a hawk take down a pigeon right in front of me one time Lew, it was quite the sight.

 

I wasn't about to tell him he couldn't eat it

 

I guess its the food chain and that's life.

 

There'll be more pigeons Lew, hang in there

 

Joey

[Hooked]

More than likely a Red Tail. Saw one grab a pigeon and fly off with it before, almost looked like he was giving the pigeon flying lessons, haha. Pretty cool to see indeed.

[Big Cliff]

We eat fish and meat, hawks eat what ever they can catch! I have a bunch of wild rabbits in my yard, every once in a while I loose one to an owl or a fox, it's sad but it's life!

[ketchenany]

Lew,I'm at Young and Eglinton and there are two on top of the Canadian Tire building across from us. Our building has a balcony that they can perch on and look out and use it as a feeding station; talk about pigeon parts.

 

Go here and see them up close, they are beautiful birds

 

http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/toronto...Photos06.htmlLL

[douG]

Not really a lot left of the pigeon, is there? Thanks, Lew.

[davis]

Momma nature is pretty cool.

 

My buddy FLAPN has a good story about a Hawk (or Falcon) that regularly terrorized Blue Jays up at his trailer, and was finally driven away by a "gang" of Blue Jays that obviously had enough of that...

[Musky or Specks]

Was in the back yard once moving the tin shed. It was sitting on big patio stones and I moved them as well. A blue jay was attracted to all the bugs underneath the stones and kept flitting around picking them off. All of a sudden theres a blur of brown. A red tail just swooped in and picked the blue jay outta mid air not five feet from me. Scared the crap outta me but it was so cool.

Edited January 3, 2008 by Musky or Specks

[pikehunter]

Too bad there isn't a way to convince that hawk to commute to downtown Toronto. There's so many pigeons down there that it would feel he's at a smörgåsbord!

 

Good reason your smaller feathered friends high tailed it out of there Lew.

[Jigger]

My old boss used to raise spinner/tumbler pigeons. Very cool bird. Every now and again hawks would take a pigeon. Very cool how they would do it though. The pigeons would be flying and tumbling, doing their thing. When the hawk showed itself, it was always beneath the pigeons. This would push the flock up a little further. The hawk would dissapear and the flock would start coming down to land and the hawk would fly under them again, pushing them back up again. This would happen anywhere from one to maybe ten times, depending on how strong the birds felt that day. Sooner or later though, the pigeons would invariably be too exausted and would land on a house and POW!!! The hawk would do its thing. Awesome creatures. Truly an Apex predator in the air.

[irishfield]

Any good feathers left for your bucktails ?

Edited January 3, 2008 by irishfield

[Snowball]

Here is a Red-tailed Hawk up close:

 

 

Regards,

Snowball

[steverowbotham]

last year we watched a red tail hawk take a squirrel right off one of our feeders, it was awesome

[Rizzo]

time to get me a birdfeeder! Lots of neat accounts there of nature up close.

[singingdog]

From the shape, posture, and the darkness of the back, I would say that's a redtail. We have merlins and sharpshinned hawks feed at our feeders sometimes. We call it the two-tier feeder system.

[lew]

Here is a Red-tailed Hawk up close:

 

 

Regards,

Snowball

 

Yup, this is it fer sure, truly a majestic bird and I'm sure right near the top of his food chain.

[Roy]

Raptors are truly terrific aerial hunters:

 

[bucktail]

I almost had my head taken off last week as I walked around the corner of my house.

A sparrow was going full oout with a Merlin 6 inches off of his tail. Came within a foot of my head. Now that would have hurt.

[tipupesox]

Looking from the size of the bird i would say it is a red tail. In Western New York they are just flourishing. Witnessed an interesting encounter with a hawk at Sturgeon Lake (Kawartha's) this Fall. It was a beautiful Fall day in the 60's and the black squirrels were about feeding, all of a sudden out of nowhere we see a flash of brown and the screaching sound of a squirrel. Fortunately for the squirrel the hawk dropped his meal. All the black squirrels scattered. Nature can be truely amazing ..................

 

Tom

[lew]

Well, the hawk was back again about 10 minutes ago, sitting on a branch only 15' from the feeder, but I couldn't get a picture of him. I guess he knows now that there's some easy pickins around here and he's gonna take advantage of the feasts while he can.

 

Seems like the other birds are well aware of him though, as I haven't had a bird here since the incident yesterday and I'd normally have 30 birds here by now. Oh well, I guess on the bright side I'm gonna save alot of $$$$ on bird seed.

 

I'm gonna leave the camera by the window and who know's, maybe he'll pose for me one of these times and I can get a decent shot of him.

 

And Roy, thanks for that video, it was really incredible !!

Edited January 4, 2008 by lew

[Kawartha Kev]

Perhaps he looks like this guy a young juvenile red tail who visits my yard occasionally. The one in your photo looks like a larger individual.

 

Kawartha Kev

[Canuck2fan]

I drive a delivery route through some great hawk country. In the summer I often take a break near one particularly good hill, and watch the soaring hawks do their thing. It is just incredible how fast they can swoop on an unsuspecting bird and nab one of out a flock as well. I am very encouraged at how well the hawk population is rebounding. It was not all that long ago they were looking at extinction due the DDT residue turning their eggs shells so soft they wouldn't hatch. As a top predator it is good to see them flourishing as that shows the whole ecosystem is doing better. Almost weekly now I see hawks that are HUGE and healthy and to me that is a good sign. Recently some scientists were doing a radio show wondering where all the native small birds were since apparently their numbers are down now. All you have to do is see the number of hawks around here and it isn't too hard to figure out.... The other birds had a really good run for 15 yrs or so while the raptor population rebuilt itself, now it will be interesting to see how it all levels out.

Edited January 4, 2008 by Canuck2fan