Hey folks,

Take a look at these two amazing videos showing the aerial battles and the eternal life and death struggle of predator vs. prey. It's really amazing how each bird has evolved for speed and to outdo the other. The first video unfortunately shows a feral pigeon being caught by a falcon. But in this same video a falcon goes after a homing pigeon and the pigeon leaves the falcon in it's dust! Way to go little pijjie!

The second video shows similar things, various falcons hunting and sprinting after pigeons....some are caught, others use fast flight to escape. Unfortunately this second video is in Spanish or something but the slow motion and close up video shots are very cool!

Video #1

And Video #2....

Great videos Brad !

I enjoyed the little victory dance in # 1

In #2 you feel like you are flying right with the birds . Gets your blood pumping doesnt it ?

I know hawks have to eat .... but I always side with the pigeons

Thanks for posting those !


Hambone

I can remember watching with nervous anticipation as my little rollers were being chased by various hawks over the years. The pigeons were usually able to outfly the hawks which I found rather amazing. The scariest have been Coopers Hawks and Goshawks which are quite agile and fast but it was quite rare for the hawk to catch one. Phew! I realize that they have to eat too but I'd much rather they chose something other than my poor little buddies to have for lunch. I rarely flew anything besides rollers even though I've had clsoe to 100 different breeds of pigeons over the years. Most of them were not as good at flying as the rollers which are pretty quick and agile.

I told a story over at PT where a friend of mine who raised falcons and I allowed a Peregrine Falcon that he had raised and trained to hunt, to hunt some feral barn pigeons that hung around his place. This was nearly 30 years ago. Anyway, the Falcon was completely outflown by the pigeons and I was amazed and actually relieved. The premier hunter of the sky could not catch a pigeon. I thought that it was pretty cool. I would not do this now and have no desire to hunt or kill anything but this drew warnings from more than one at PT. I hope no one takes offense, it was a long time ago and I only share it to illustrate how well pigeons can fly.

Bill

Thanks Bob and Bill for watching and commenting

Bob, I'm with you, I always route for the underdog, or in this case, the underpigeon! I always hate to see a pigeon get caught because they seem so innocent and totally defenseless. It's heartbreaking and awful to see a hawk killing a pigeon to me.

Bill, I'm with you and I believe that even barn pigeons, ferals are quite capable of escaping from hawks. As long as they are in good health, they are darn fast when they need to be. Rollers are nice birds, never had those and they are really sleek and beautiful. I didn't know that they had that kind of speed behind them.

Yes, I think most would agree the coopers and goshawks are the worst as far as potential pigeon killers go. Not only do they have the speed bursts, they've got the agility to back it up. Those long tails and short rounded wings allow them to turn on a dime. Still, pigeons can outfly them in good circumstances.

That is the video indeed Brad. I see that you had already posted two good ones. I'm glad we have them on this forum. Sorry...I posted it again. Give me a minute....I'll get use to the way things are done around here.

Wings wrote:That is the video indeed Brad. I see that you had already posted two good ones. I'm glad we have them on this forum. Sorry...I posted it again. Give me a minute....I'll get use to the way things are done around here.

No problem, Wings.