What's eating my pigeon?

[Phooey]

We've had some pigeons nesting above an exterior light - just below the roof line. This morning one of them flew into our window and knocked itself out, dropped onto the patio below, and within 5 mins carried away onto a corner of the grass. I opened the window and asked what was going off but the bird just ignored me, smiled for a photo, and continued to enjoy it's warm dinner. It was quite graphic watching it first being stripped naked. David Attenborough would of had an hard-on.

Does anyone know what type of hawk(?) it is

[MesoForm]

Sparrow Hawk

[dingg]

Sparrow hawk

[Phooey]

It’s not the first time we’ve noticed a heap of feathers on the lawn.. thought, and blamed it on the local cat. Case closed. Thanks




Sad end for our pigeon though

[dingg]

One of the main reasons why songbirds are on a disappearing act in our gardens, but it doesn't suit the rspb agenda, who as you infer, love to see raptors hawks birds of prey increase....at the expense of our songbirds imo...

[Turkish91]

dingg said:

One of the main reasons why songbirds are on a disappearing act in our gardens, but it doesn't suit the rspb agenda, who as you infer, love to see raptors hawks birds of prey increase....at the expense of our songbirds imo...

Some maybe but personally I’d put the main decline down to Magpies, Crows etc pinching the eggs.

Watching a pair of Magpies work a hedgerow during songbird nesting season is actually quite impressive.

[dingg]

Certainly agree with the magpies, seen them wait until eggs have hatched then eating chicks before fledging, never too many about when I was kid, now they're everywhere....

[bigdom]

We have a lot of crows near us in the Surrey Hills, I've seen an influx of brids of prey due to all the heath fires in the summer, and hunting grounds being diminished.

Magpies & pigeon are picked off quite regularly when the crows work in unison. A bit like the Killer Whales on Blue Planet.

[B'stard Child]

Do you think he'd like to move home - we are over run with pigeons - local church ruins got re-pointed a few years back removing all the nesting spaces now they are all over the estate I live - mornings it's not unusual to see at least 3 or 4 pigeons on every roof around us..............

[Jasandjules]

That would be a sparrow hawk. We have a couple here and a while ago had one with a recently ex pigeon about 3ft from our window.