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Saw a Headless Pigeon this Morning

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Saw a Headless Pigeon this Morning

Old 11-09-09, 02:11 PM
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m_yates
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Saw a Headless Pigeon this Morning

Thread title says it all I guess. A pigeon body with the head cleanly removed on the side of the bike path. Maybe a cat would do that? I don't know. No sign of the head anywhere. Filed among the "strangest things you've seen or your commute" or "roadkill"?
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Old 11-09-09, 02:13 PM
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Another victim of the spoke guillotine?
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Old 11-09-09, 02:14 PM
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Originally Posted by m_yates
Thread title says it all I guess. A pigeon body with the head cleanly removed on the side of the bike path. Maybe a cat would do that? I don't know. No sign of the head anywhere. Filed among the "strangest things you've seen or your commute" or "roadkill"?
Maybe he was killed for his helmet... or would still be alive had he been wearing his helmet.

BTW this would have been interesting if the pigeon was still flying, but headless and lying beside the road does not do it for me.
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Old 11-09-09, 02:22 PM
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It's almost certainly the remains of a hawk's dinner. I forget which, but one species of hawk (Cooper's or Sharp-Shinned maybe?) eats the bird's head and leaves the rest. Anyway, headless birds are the calling card of one particular hawk species.
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Old 11-09-09, 02:24 PM
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Barn Owl. Had one of those bastards take out about 12 of my chickens once. Only thing missing was their heads. Vital component though....
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Old 11-09-09, 02:30 PM
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Originally Posted by knobster
Barn Owl. Had one of those bastards take out about 12 of my chickens once. Only thing missing was their heads. Vital component though....
I still maintain gloves are more important for pigeon safety than helmets.
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Old 11-09-09, 02:59 PM
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Originally Posted by Quickbeam
It's almost certainly the remains of a hawk's dinner. I forget which, but one species of hawk (Cooper's or Sharp-Shinned maybe?) eats the bird's head and leaves the rest. Anyway, headless birds are the calling card of one particular hawk species.
How much sustenance can you get from a pigeon head? It's obviously meant to be a warning to the rest of the pigeon population.
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Old 11-09-09, 03:05 PM
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Was Ozzie in town over the weekend? yuck.
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Old 11-09-09, 03:27 PM
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Sorry about that. I liked to eat something crunchy on my commute in the morning.
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Old 11-09-09, 05:03 PM
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We have a peregrine falcon living near our office who often leaves headless birds in our courtyard here in Seattle. Pretty cool.
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Old 11-09-09, 07:22 PM
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You are riding too slow.
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Old 11-09-09, 07:51 PM
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Ichabod, um, Pigeon?
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Old 11-09-09, 08:23 PM
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Originally Posted by BGrayvy
We have a peregrine falcon living near our office who often leaves headless birds in our courtyard here in Seattle. Pretty cool.
It could be the Peregrine Falcon that I was referring to (or even an owl like danarnold suggested). I just don't remember for certain. I went to a program a few weeks ago at the Wildlife Science Center and they had an expert on birds-of-prey there. They brought out birds and the expert from the DNR talked about each species. There were hawks, owls, falcons, eagles... When he was talking about one particular species he said that headless birds were its calling card. I remembered it because I occasionally find headless birds in my yard and it struck a chord with me.
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Old 11-09-09, 08:47 PM
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We had a cat that would catch birds and eat just the heads. I guess he only liked the crunchy parts. It used to gross out my wife.
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Old 11-09-09, 08:49 PM
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Originally Posted by AlmostTrick
Was Ozzie in town over the weekend? yuck.
We brought Ozzie in for questioning, but he swears he doesn't remember.
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Old 11-09-09, 11:02 PM
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The head is where the tasty, tasty brains live.
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Old 11-09-09, 11:07 PM
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My GFs old cat (I'm talking 18 years old) still kills bunnies and eats their brains.
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Old 11-09-09, 11:10 PM
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Pigeon zombies?

"brrrraaaiins!"
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Old 11-09-09, 11:15 PM
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Hawks. We had them in the tower of the building where I work. One Halloween a few years ago a headless pigeon landed at my feet as I was entering the building. I turned around and went home.
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Old 11-10-09, 07:11 AM
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Heads up! (as in a larger bird took off with it)

The past few years we've had a lot of rabbits in our area. Until this year. Sure enough, two houses away, hanging out in a backyard tree, is an owl. We didn't notice him but our neighbors told us.

I'm a little worried about our pug, even though she's "big boned."
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Old 11-10-09, 08:02 AM
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What is the location of the bike path? Rochester has three resident Peregrine Falcons and people come from all over the world to watch them.

Paul
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Old 11-10-09, 08:32 AM
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I wonder if birds of prey do this cause there isn't much meat on flying birds; unlike, for example turkeys, partridges, domestic chickens. Plus if they did go after the body, they'd have to spend a lot of time defeathering it which would make them vulnerable to ground attack by bigger animals.

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Old 11-10-09, 08:57 AM
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I saw a headless deer at the side of the road last week. If a peregrine falcon got that, I may have to rethink this bicycle commuting thing.
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Old 11-10-09, 09:30 AM
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Peregrine falcons can do that as described in the food habits of these critters.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire/co..._feature.shtml
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Old 11-10-09, 11:24 AM
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Originally Posted by PaulH
What is the location of the bike path? Rochester has three resident Peregrine Falcons and people come from all over the world to watch them.

Paul
The falcons that you are referring to live on a high rise building downtown. There is a web cam filming the nest. I was on the Erie canal bike path pretty far from there, but you are right that falcons live around here. I did see one swoop down and pick up a rabbit once when I was driving. I never knew that those birds would eat heads of other birds, though.
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