# White Rump & Falcon Predation



## bluecheck (Aug 17, 2006)

I know many of you have seen the research that came out a few years back on white-rumped blues having MUCH better escape ratios under falcons, but I figured it was time to reshow it to some of the newer folks. If you are having peregrine attacks on your birds, it might well be useful to make sure that your flying stock has the white rump. We don't know yet whether this is also working with Cooper's or other accipiters (though I sort of doubt it because of their hunting style). 

http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/05.05/01-pigeon.html

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v434/n7036/full/434973b.html (payment required for this -- but you can likely find the Nature issue in your local college library)

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/...me-Respect-By-JOE-EATON-Special-to-the-Planet


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## Revolution Lofts (Aug 7, 2008)

so a pigeon that has a white lower back is less likely to get attacked by these guys? odd but cool


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## bluecheck (Aug 17, 2006)

Not less likely to be attacked, but more likely to escape the attack.


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## corvid (Oct 16, 2008)

Bluecheck !! Thank you for the links . Very interesting articles.

Nell


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

*HI FRANK, I heard about this a couple of years ago.When I told the people in my club they did not believe it,so I droped the subject I believed it then and I still believe it now.* ..GEORGE


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## bluecheck (Aug 17, 2006)

George,
One thing I've found over the years with pigeon guys - belief in fable is a lot stronger than accepting a fact. A lot of these guys are the same ones who insisted for years that PMV was a "myth" or that if you look at the legs of a racing homer you could tell who the good bird was if you had "bananas (scales) that were straight and not crooked."

People forget that the Peregrine and the Pigeon have the same relationship as predator and prey that the Lion and the Zebra have. It's been on-going for hundreds of millenia. There's an arms race of evolution that's been going on and still going on and the white rump seems to be one part of it.

Frank


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

*FRANK, you are so right they seem to believe fiction before fact I gave up on them a long time ago.* GEORGE


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