I know Cooper's Hawks here in North America (they are small accipiters) will
decapitate pigeons and leave the body untouched in a similar manner to
Jill's Peregrine. I observed this once in a peculiar way. I was walking
under a broad-limbed tree, and something fell from above and landed by my
toes, just missing my head. It was a headless feral pigeon. As one might
imagine, I was startled -- when I looked up in the tree, and an extremely
angry Cooper's was glaring at me (forgive the anthropomorphism), having just
lost its meal. Dare I say when it flew off soon after, it flew off in a
huff?
Douglas Carver
Albuquerque, New Mexico
United States
On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 4:50 AM, Paul Dodd <> wrote:
> Ruth and I saw the same Peregrines on Tuesday around sunset whilst waiting
> for our flight. One was on the closest light tower to the terminal
> building.
> The second was a couple of towers further away. The funny thing was that
> another bird decided to hassle the falcons - an Australian Raven, I think
> (although the light was very low by this time). The Raven flew at the
> furthest falcon and swooped it off its perch. The Raven then chased off the
> falcon for a little while. The closer falcon watched all this with interest
> and eventually flew off after its mate.
>
> An enjoyable way to spend half an hour waiting for a delayed flight!
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> On Behalf Of Coghlan, Nigel
> Sent: Wednesday, 11 June 2008 7:40 PM
> To:
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] raptor prey (was sea eagle observation)
>
> I have quite regular observations of a pair Peregrines where I work at
> Mascot, and am occasionally treated to seeing them hunt as a pair. Most
> of the time they leave behind a pigeon carcass, and it's nearly always
> as Jill has described. Lately, rainbow lorikeets have become part of the
> menu.
>
> Occasionally they rip the wings off completely, and they can be found
> amongst the 'circle of feathers' that the Peregrine leaves behind if
> they feed on the ground and not from a perch.
>
>
>
> On Monday I witnessed the pair of them take a Silver Gull down in
> flight. The gull didn't make much of an effort to get away, and it was
> an easy kill. The Peregrine landed about 50 metres from the initial
> catch location, and with one talon around the gulls neck and one on the
> ground, stood proudly while the second bird watched from a light tower.
> Within a minute the gull stopped moving and the falcon started taking it
> apart from the breast area, ripping the feathers away.
>
> I'm guessing the gull wasn't terribly tasty, as the falcon abandoned it,
> leaving behind a mostly whole, barely eaten carcass.
>
>
>
> I've not been able to observe the feeding habits of other birds of prey,
> so can't help with that.
>
>
>
> Cheers
>
> Nigel
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Jill wrote
>
> This morning I was birdwatching with the Illawarra Bird Club and we saw
> a
> carcass, probably a wood duck. I thought it had been taken by a
> Peregrine
> because of the neat way the flesh was stripped from the breastbone and
> neck,
> with the head missing and not much else taken off the carcass, which was
> lying
> on it's back with both wings, legs and lower part of the body pretty
> much
> intact..
>
> I've seen a carcass of a feral pigeon that looked to have been eaten in
> the
> same way, and that was by a Peregrine.
>
> Can anyone tell me whether this is characteristic of Peregrines, or
> would other
> raptors (eg accupiters, other falcons) eat in the same way?
> Thanks
> Jill
>
>
>
>
>
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