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Birds of prey - which cause an issue with rabbits in gardens

daphnephoebe

Wise Old Thumper
So we've started letting the girls free range in the garden when we can supervise.
We know there is a bird of prey but it always circles up high so I can identify it. It's hunted the smaller birds in the garden before.

Now I know we should assume all birds can cause injury to a rabbit, but which birds of prey can actually pick up an adult rabbit and carry it away?

The one that flys over has an impressive wing span so I imagine to be a type of kite or similar and not something like a kestrel.

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I have sparrowhawks that try and hunt the birds at my feeders,no danger to rabbits.Though I did witness one take down a feral pigeon in the garden.I'm in Scotland but large raptors are much further north.
 
Red Kites are carrion feeders ,they don't hunt live prey.Buzzards take carrion and live prey,maybe just be careful if you have buzzzards in the area.
 
We have buzzards over here. They have a huge wing span but tend to glide high up in the thermals, so beautiful. We also have peregrine falcons. I heard one come screaming in. It ended up in next doors garden. It had probably tried to take a large wood pigeon, which ended up stone dead in OUR garden. We also have sparrow hawks and kestrels, they are probably too small to take a domestic bunny. But you need to be vigilant and have lots of hidey holes for your buns. We live in a built up part of town and tend to have more seagulls and jackdaws around, which can spook my buns. Saying that, recently we have a robin which flies around with my bunnies and waits for them to dig up the garden, presumably he's waiting for worms or such like to eat.
 
Not many that we have. Red kites have a bad reputation but their feet are too small to hunt animals like rabbits, sparrowhawks are occupied by small birds, and is probably what you see. Peregrines maybe could, but very unlikely to hunt in gardens and are totally satisfied with pigeons. The only birds we have that are capable of carrying a domestic rabbit are golden eagles and white tailed eagles that only reside up in Scotland. I see you're in Cambridge so no worries there!

I tried to post this seconds before the forum went down yesterday but obviously just missed the deadline for posting :lol: I wrote my dissertation on red kites and did my final year project on raptors, so like to think I know a fair bit... I'm also determined to dispel the myths that the Daily Mail/The Sun etc like to print about birds of prey because it's all a load of ********! I think the main thing to remember is that yes, some raptors look enormous, but that is mostly hollow bones and feathers so the chances of taking a domesticated rabbit are so so tiny!

If the bird you're seeing is golden/red with a forked tail, it's a red kite, and if it's quite chunky, dark brown with mottled underwing, it's probably a buzzard :)
 
So we've started letting the girls free range in the garden when we can supervise.
We know there is a bird of prey but it always circles up high so I can identify it. It's hunted the smaller birds in the garden before.

Now I know we should assume all birds can cause injury to a rabbit, but which birds of prey can actually pick up an adult rabbit and carry it away?

The one that flys over has an impressive wing span so I imagine to be a type of kite or similar and not something like a kestrel.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

If your bird that circles up high also hunts birds in your garden then it's a Sparrowhawk and they're no danger whatsoever to rabbits.

Only bird of prey that poses a threat to rabbits is the Common Buzzard, but one of them attempting to take a rabbit in a garden is vanishingly unlikely.

Couple of caveats to the above ...
1. if you live in certain parts of Scotland then there's a theoretical risk from White-tailed and Golden Eagles, but they're even less likely to come into a garden than a Buzzard.
2. if you have an Eagle Owl (which is a huge Owl, not an Eagle) living closeby (and there are a few dotted around the country) *and* your rabbits are out in the garden at night then watch out then. Especially don't worry about Kites though, like Buzzards they're looking for carrion and if they can't get that they take worms and beetles.
 
Peregrines maybe could, but very unlikely to hunt in gardens and are totally satisfied with pigeons. )

Check out some of the accounts of examination of Peregrine nest contents. Turns out Peregrines it seems quite routinely eat a huge variety of other birds.

The pair on the Tate Modern had the remains of all sorts of species, everything from Redshank, Little Grebe and Snipe to Kestrel. And best/worst of all, the pair on Kingsnorth power station a few years ago had a Little Bittern stashed!
 
Thanks everyone for the info.
I thought might be a sparrow hawk but I've never seen on in this area. I saw a bird of prey attacking a bird i nthe garden (a swoop & grab attempt) but it went so quickly I didn't get a decent look to identify.

The girls actually bully me and OH to let them out in the garden now. (As I type I'm sat on the refurbished garden bench while they hop around and munch the grass thats only just started growing :/ ). I will obviously still supervise as we do get cats in the garden which I've had to stop a couple times from stalking them in their run but with the new cat scarer and only one way they can get into the garden now I feel less worried.

Thanks for all the input :)
 
We're lucky: we get a few buzzards high up, but they won't come down because of the tree and washing line placement as it'd be too dangerous. I've never seen any bird fly directly into the garden larger than a magpie: even the woodpigeons have to land in the tree and work their way down.
 
Check out some of the accounts of examination of Peregrine nest contents. Turns out Peregrines it seems quite routinely eat a huge variety of other birds.

The pair on the Tate Modern had the remains of all sorts of species, everything from Redshank, Little Grebe and Snipe to Kestrel. And best/worst of all, the pair on Kingsnorth power station a few years ago had a Little Bittern stashed!

*Totally satisfied with smallish birds* ;) I was in a rush when I wrote it, sorry! When I went to Bristol to see the peregrines, some birders were chatting to me about various bones they found in their nests. They also told me about a pigeon fancier who decided to start flying his birds through Avon Gorge every Sunday... where, of course a pair of peregrines nest! Then wound up angry at the peregrines for killing his birds every Sunday! Some people, honestly...
 
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