# Hawk tried getting my pigeons again!!!



## pigeonkeeper (Apr 12, 2008)

Hi, this is pigeonkeeper. The same hawk tried getting my pigeon again!! Luckily i was outside and scared him off. looks like this one.

http://www.hiltonpond.org/images/HawkSharpShinnedAdult01.jpg

He has tried getting the a lot of times before, but he has never gotten any!! THANK GOD!! ugh. i don't like him, but i guess that's what they do!! _Can i do anything to help them??_


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

pigeonkeeper said:


> Hi, this is pigeonkeeper. The same hawk tried getting my pigeon again!! Luckily i was outside and scared him off. looks like this one.
> 
> http://www.hiltonpond.org/images/HawkSharpShinnedAdult01.jpg
> 
> He has tried getting the a lot of times before, but he has never gotten any!! THANK GOD!! ugh. i don't like him, but i guess that's what they do!! _Can i do anything to help them??_


there is no remedy to this, it is a fact of life...you just have a choice..fly your birds or don't....some will have a waiting period and hope the hawk has moved on...you just have to make your own choices as what is right for you, but the hawk will always be not far away and you can have good days and hawk days, that is just the way it is ......


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## pigeonkeeper (Apr 12, 2008)

spirit wings said:


> there is no remedy to this, it is a fact of life...you just have a choice..fly your birds or don't....some will have a waiting period and hope the hawk has moved on...you just have to make your own choices as what is right for you, but the hawk will always be not far away and you can have good days and hawk days, that is just the way it is ......


yes, i only let them out for about 10 minutes now to let them bathe. the i bring them back home. they use to always be outside, but now, since it's going to start to snow soon, i've moved them inside, and i let them out in the morning to let them bathe for a while!! i've told people this, and they say that we should get rid of the hawk, but i said NO, it's just how it happens. the hawk doesn't know the pigeons are my pets, so yea!! that's pretty much it!!


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## lwerden (May 31, 2008)

Where I use to live, I kept ducks and geese. I had a pond on my property. I had a really bad problem with Owls. Owls are treacherous. They would only attack at night, and what the worst part was, when they attacked the birds they only took off their heads. They would leave the rest of the body. The only solution I found to stop the attacks was that I would leave raw chicken legs out at night to feed them. It saved my birds, because the owls were being fed. I don't know if it would help with the hawk, but you might try putting some raw meat out and see what happens.

Just a suggestion.........to try and save your birds.

If I were you, I wouldn't let my birds out unless I was there to watch them the entire time.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

It takes less than 10 minutes for a Hawk to get your Pigeons. Skip the bath for a while. Better they be DUSTY than DEAD. Give it a month or so and try again.


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## Ed (Sep 18, 2008)

looks like a cooper hawk


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## RodSD (Oct 24, 2008)

Hawk definitely is a nuisance. I released my birds today after not flying them for 5 days and sure enough the hawk was waiting perched on a tree. A crow gave alarm and my birds all went inside the loft real fast. My resident hawk seems to know when my birds are out. Is your hawk resident or migrating one?


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## pigeonkeeper (Apr 12, 2008)

RodSD said:


> Hawk definitely is a nuisance. I released my birds today after not flying them for 5 days and sure enough the hawk was waiting perched on a tree. A crow gave alarm and my birds all went inside the loft real fast. My resident hawk seems to know when my birds are out. Is your hawk resident or migrating one?


i've never seen him before!! the first time, it attacked, i thought it would go away after the first try, but it keeps coming [email protected]!


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Last summer we had a young person from Georgia post that a Hawk had killed one of his dearest, most beloved Pigeons. He was completely heart broken. Still, he continued to let his Pigeons out to fly because he felt sorry for them being cooped up and unable to exercise. Within a couple of days, the Hawk had killed them all. The he got some more Pigeons and even though we said...Don't Let Your Birds Out...he still did and the same thing happened. That's what the Hawks do... they come back until all the birds are gone.
It still haunts me that he didn't listen and all those birds died.


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## Guest (Nov 1, 2008)

i agree with charis here , there are so many people that dont hede the warnings that we all try to instill in others  why would you even consider letting your birds out to fly if you know you have a hawk in the immediate area or have just had an attack by a hawk at this time of year especially from what I remember you dont even have birds that can out fly a hawk to begin with so why are you taking chances like that  I have at least 200 hundred birds here and when it gets to this time of year when hawks are that bad I just stop flying my birds til the next spring when they stand a better chance of not being hit by hawks every day they are out .. if you want them safe you will keep them in and dont worry about the need to let them do what pigeons do .. a live pigeon beats a dead one anyday in my book . keep them safe and dont be sorry as their life is short enuf ...


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## jenfer (Jan 7, 2008)

Can't the birds bathe inside??

I don't know if supervising their outside time will necessarily keep them safe. In my experience, hawks come in so quickly that we humans (or at least this human) don't even have time to react. 

Jennifer


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## Guest (Nov 1, 2008)

yes its true what jenfer is saying , hawks dont care if your there or not and the fact that they are bathing only inpairs the flying ability so thats like you only making it that much easier for them to be picked off by a bird of prey


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## RodSD (Oct 24, 2008)

So what would you do if hawk is ever present in your area? If you lockdown, obviously the birds are safe inside. But does this mean that you will lockdown forever?

I've read many advices about protecting your birds from hawks. The only advice that work is to keep the birds inside. On the other side of the coin, you might as well not get a flying breed if you will keep them inside forever because you have a resident hawk.

I am at dilemma. I like my birds to fly, but the hawk is ever present. So the question is: How can you have the opportunity to fly when a hawk is always present? Probable answers could be that I can't fly anymore or take my chances. I ended up taking chances with 1 week lockdown after attack, but it repeats again after release.


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## Guest (Nov 1, 2008)

actually I would just keep them in til the spring ,this time of year is not really the best to have your birds out if you have a hawk problem ..in the spring there is more for birds of prey to feed upon so it takes the focus off your birds being their main food source ..


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## Venny (Nov 1, 2008)

Hawks are good to keep the pigeon flock lean and mean. I have seen them try but they have never caught any of my birds. The pigeons seem to know when hawks are nearby and they do not come out. Hawks usually stick around for a day or two before they move on.


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## Lambish (Oct 19, 2008)

I keep my dove flock (ferals) very tightly together when a hawk is on campus, and the hawk does in fact leave after a couple of days. The hawk is impossible to scare away, and he always gets one or two of my flock. Mercifully, he only comes a couple of times per year. His habitat must be one of the nearby parks. For the past two days, he has been terrorizing my doves, and yesterday I could not find Honeybee, who is small and susceptible because of a recent beak injury. Illness is really heartbreaking to deal with in doves, as it is so difficult to save them. The hawk is horrible, but at least when he strikes it is swift. I had doves for six years before illness ever struck, and not one of my beloved birds was taken by the hawk, but in the last couple of months, both calamities have hit hard.


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## dapplepigeon (Mar 24, 2010)

I have had a hawk kill two of my birds in one day, yet I still let my bird out, since I have only one and the loft is pretty small (fits 4 birds, which is the max of the max). No lockdown, since she gets depressed and sick if she cant fly around. Also, she spends most of the day running around the loft trying to find a way out to fly if I don't let her out. She's an ok flyer, and has only been flying for about a week, yet she has always come back safe and sound. She's not even a homer or racer, yet I think she can beat a hawk.


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## jeff houghton (Jul 17, 2010)

Man thats rotten luck to lose 2 in one day when you only have 4 birds.


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## dapplepigeon (Mar 24, 2010)

It was only their second day flying  plus they're just normal street pigeons (they dont have nay homer/racer blood)


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