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bird of prey....

bunnymadhouse

Wise Old Thumper
i ve seen a bird of prey in my garden on and off now for the last 18 months or so . this week i have seen it 3 times . :shock: the first time it just flew over . the second time it actualy swooped down over my small run (lid wasd on thank goodness) ansd then it swooped down over Hope then flew off . i think it must have thought she was too big ....shes a big bunny . today it has flown over again carrying a poor small creature from some where . Im sure blue and hope are safe from it in the garden as they are both very big buns and the other buns go in runs with lids .....but it still scares me . i usualy love seeing these birds as they are magnificent creatures and some are quite rare ..but... i wish it wasnt so near my bunnies :?
 
Is it a kestrel do you think. I've seen one of those sat on a bush looking at the bunnies in oure garden this week.
 
Oh no I've never worried about bird of prey before, do I need to worry about them.
 
swooping down through a garden sounds like a sparrowhawk to me, i have not researched but i have never heard of a sparrowhawk taking on a rabbit. they tend to go for birds on the wing. when i had an avery i had one stun itself on the wire trying to get to my bengalese finches :shock:
sparrowhawk.jpg

a buzzard would try for a bun but i dont think they frequent gardens much as they are not very agile!
kestrels i'm sure wouldnt be able to tackle an adult bun, even a dwarf as they mostly go for mice etc but i wouldnt guarantee it.
owls are what i would worry most about, but even then i dont think they would be able to tackle a fully grown bunny
 
A sparrowhawk would take a small bun..so would most birds of prey...buzzards are also getting to be more frequent visitors to built up areas and they would take quite large prey as they are huge...I've seen a pair of buzzards over our estate quite a few times recently..and have a sparrowhawk visit my garden eyeing up the buns who are luckily always in lidded runs.
 
We have all the birds of prey here and the buzzards. The hawks take our pigeons. Even just seeing a hawk terrifies them.
 
One of my ex's kept birds of prey and one of his sparrow hawks (tethered) was killed by blackbirds!! He was only young but fully grown!

We also have hawks here that search for prey on the warm air off the motorways but do sometimes fly over the garden. Runs should have lids.. you never know!
 
Killed by blackbirds...amazing. I suppose it is an instinct thing...maybe trying to protect babies etc. I know the crows give the buzzards here a hard time!!
 
..or were they crows?? :? Theyre different right??

Anyway, unfortunately the sparrow hawk was tethered on a flat roof and set upon so it didnt really stand a chance.
There was also a large Red Tailed Falcon sitting not very far away and she was fine (shes huge) but didnt seem to bother the assassins
 
it was definatly not a kestrel . wrong colouring (i think kestrals are very beuatiful birds :roll: )
been to a gala today and there was a guy with rescue birds of prey . He recons it could have been a sparrow hawk or possibly a buzzard . He says both are found around where i live :? :?
not too worried if its a sparrow hawk as all the smaller buns go in lidded runs . But Buzzards are bigger . i wonder if they could takle Blue and Haope :shock: :? but then again they are bigger than an average cat and i dont think even a Buzzard would try to take something that size would it :shock: :? :?
 
a single buzzard is capable of taking prey of about 0.5kg. however buzzards can and do form a cooperative hunting partys consisting of several inderviduals which allow them to take much larger prey.
buzzards are VERY agile and catching rabbits, though difficult is acheviable.
i strongly recomend that if the idervidual bird you have seen on numerous occassions is a buzzard, that your rabbits are put in a lidded run for thair own safety.
 
If it was me I would just go and get them a lidded run, I wouldn't take the chance - better safe than sorry. Can guess and surmise and whatever, but what if something does happen to one of them? I know how I'd feel, like I say I just wouldn't chance it :)
 
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