Dear Blythe/Tweeters,
There is certainly a lot of variability when it comes to Raptor kills. In general, though, a bird eating raptor will eat the head first. This is very reliable in the smaller species. I would say very close to 100% of the time a Merlin will eat a bird head first.
In Falconry, the biggest problem with the beloved Merlin, is their tendency to "carry." The commonest question people ask me as a Falconer is; "do they bring what they catch back to you?" The answer, to be brief, is "no." A Merlin will rarely, if ever, eat on the ground, unless the prey item is large, such as a dove, and they cannot fly it up to a high perch. The best system that a Merlin Falconer can use is to stay back from the Falcon while they pluck and eat the head. The moment they finish eating the head, if the Falconer shows them a desirable, plucked and ready to eat offering they will, with luck and training, carry the remainder of the bird to the falconers glove to finish their meal. Once they start plucking the body, they have a bit of a job ahead of them, and will give up that work in favor of an easier meal.
It is the habit of carrying the kill to a safe place that makes hunting smaller quarry with a larger raptor a tricky proposition. It also makes flying an Osprey at Fish very difficult since carrying is required of every capture.
When hunting red squirrels with a male Goshawk I thought I was in real trouble once. "Gozzie Bird" chose to eat the squirrel up in a tall Beech tree. Luckily, he ate the head first and lost control of the body, dropping it down to me. At that point, he was only about half full, and was willing to come to the lure. Had he eaten enough to be full, he would have spent the night out.
When hunting ducks with a peregrine, I found an unusual set up shortly after a hard freeze. A pond of about half acre was frozen almost completely, leaving only a small patch of water open. With her nicely overhead I flushed the ducks and she knocked a hen widgeon onto the ice. She promptly killed the duck and began eating the head. The ice was too thin to walk on. My options were limited, and I was worried she would be spending the night out. Luckily, after eating the head and neck, she began plucking the breast. At that point, I was able to swing the lure and she dragged the widgeon across the ice over to the edge of the pond so she could have the easy meal on the lure. Eating the breast was definitely the next item on her agenda, but getting to it is a lot of work…
A patch of flicker feathers, deep under the bushes is almost always the product of a Coopers Hawk kill. The accipiters will (jealously/protectively) drag their kill under cover shortly after coming to ground with it.
Larger raptors are not so reliable when it comes to eating the head first, but Great Horned Owls almost always eat the head of a rabbit first. If they make the kill in the dawn hours, they will often leave the remainder of the rabbit in the open.
Mark Borden MD
Coupeville, WA.
Sent from my iPhone
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Today's Topics:
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1. Predation question (Blythe Horman)
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2. Re: predation question (Blythe Horman)
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3. Re: Predation question (Blythe Horman)
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4. Birds of a Fiber exhibit at PNQ & FAM (r r)
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5. Re: predation question (Greg)
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6. REMINDER: WOS Monthly Meeting, February 5, 2024 (meetings at wos.org)
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7. Re: predation question (Ven. Dhammadinna)
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Message: 1
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Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2024 17:52:35 -0800
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From: Blythe Horman <blythe.horman at gmail.com>
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To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
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Subject: [Tweeters] Predation question
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Message-ID:
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<CAFAz21feAi89_E__6OGB8yPade1V-mte3iQZawToY5jttMxihQ at mail.gmail.com>
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Hi Tweeters,
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I have a predation question.
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On Saturday at Briarwood Park I came across a towhee that had been quite
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eaten on the body, but most feathers left intact. Oddly the head was
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completely stripped and the brain eaten. No idea if this was a cat or a
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particular raptor. This was on a grassy area between thick brush and a
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house. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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Back on LI, when we found a songbird with no head, we knew it had been
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eaten by a particular raptor species, but I can?t remember which one. This
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was very different, as on LI, the body would be left untouched by the
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predator.
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Thanks!
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Blythe Horman
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Lynnwood, WA
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