# Just feathers left - what's killing them?



## Petalpoos

Something had 1 of my white doves early yesterday morning, one more during the day yesterday and then a further 3 overnight/this morning. All that it's leaving is a bunch of feathers, each one strewn over about a 2ft diameter circle. It had my 3 last mature birds and 2 babies. 

What could it be? We have foxes, peregrines, sparrowhawks and buzzards in the area (West Sussex).


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## blongboy

raccoon..........


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## ptras

Petalpoos said:


> Something had 1 of my white doves early yesterday morning, one more during the day yesterday and then a further 3 overnight/this morning. All that it's leaving is a bunch of feathers, each one strewn over about a 2ft diameter circle. It had my 3 last mature birds and 2 babies.
> 
> What could it be? We have foxes, peregrines, sparrowhawks and buzzards in the area (West Sussex).


Where are your birds that they can be easily accessed by predators? Do you have a secure loft or coop? It seems to me that after the first one, I would make every effort to secure the remaining birds to avoid just such a tragedy.


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## jony ortega

blongboy said:


> raccoon..........


well a possum ate mine.they turn into a ball and make a pigeon noise to attrack the bird then it kills it


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## Charis

Sounds like rats to me.


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## Charis

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f5/half-of-my-birds-were-slaughtered-32518.html


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## ptras

People are focusing on the secondary question here. Way more important than knowing what the killer(s) was(were), is knowing how they were able to access the birds. Are they in a loft, or do they free-fly?


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## MaryOfExeter

Sounds like they are in a dovecote situation. It could be anything. Night time predators could be raccoons, opossums, and foxes. Of couse the first two can climb and weasel their way through tight spaces. Day time predators could be any hawk, falcon, or bird of prey that targets birds, cats, or dogs. Weasels, skunks, and snakes can also kill birds. Although snakes would of course swallow them whole and leave no mess behind.

Birds of prey typically only kill one bird at a time. They may kill more than one a day, especially if they have mouths to feed, but they will bother with them one at a time. Foxes also typically only take out one bird at a time. As do opossums - they kill what they can eat on the spot. Raccoons, cats, and dogs on the other hand, can massacre a whole flock before eating anything.

Rats love eating the babies, making holes in the crop and soft areas to access the grain in the bird. They have been known to take down adult birds though.


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## Petalpoos

Sorry, just back on line. They free fly from a dove cote and roost either in the dovecote or high up in an oak tree. 4 of the feather collections are within a 40 foot radius of the cote and feeding container suggesting the predator is coming in on them as they feed. One collection was about 200 yards away in the field. The feather are mainly the fluffy ones, very few primaries or tail feathers and between all of them I have found only one small fragment of breast bone, everything else, including the rings, is gone. Just a little blood. Most of the feathers have been plucked out although a few looked snapped or chewed.

I am in England, so no raccoons! Plenty of the feathered variety of raptors and foxes though.


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## Petalpoos

And...when I say 'babies' they had just left the nest in the last couple of weeks.


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## Quazar

I'd guess foxes, especially if they have young to feed.
They will kill a bird or rabbit and take it back to their den to feed their young, leaving only feathers or fur lost in the attack.
They watch and learn routines and when the young are able to follow, they also teach them the same places to "hunt".
They are very cunning and smart creatures.
We have an increasing amount of "urban" foxes now scavaging through peoples rubbish bins. 
At my old workplace every Tuesday morning a family of foxes would sit outside our door and watch the houses across the road. At 6.30am the owner of the house would put out the rubbish ready for the refuse collection.
As soon as her door was closed, the foxes would calmly walk across the road and drag the bin bag away round the corner before tearing it open to find any scraps.


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## MaryOfExeter

Is the dovecote elevated though? A fox can't climb or fly.
I'm thinking owls, hawks, falcons. Especially owls. They will eat the whole bird and leave a pile of feathers. Whereas the other two may leave the stripped carcass unless they have to feed babies (which they shouldn't by now?).


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## Petalpoos

All 5 remaining ones still alive this morning, so either the predator has lost interest or these 5 are the clever ones. MoE - the dovecote base is 6 feet off the ground, but from the position of the feather piles I suspect the predator may be taking them when they are on the ground. I have put some tall canes up all around the cote and cut back the long grass, so I will keep my fingers crossed that the last 5 live.

Thanks for all your help everyone who replied.


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## LizBerg

I lost a whole loft to rats at one point. The only one to survive was my king-cross hen, because she was mean enough to smack it around. I thought it was a mink, didn't even know rats would kill a pigeon. I knew it wasn't a cat or raccoon as my cage was sturdy enough to keep them out. 

The only way we figured out what it was, is my husband walked out while the rat was trying to get our last hen.


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