Kitchen Garden Forum

I should know the answer to this one, but I don't
Looked out this morning (5.30) to see a carrion crow pecking at a pile of grey feathers in the field. When I went to look I found a part plucked woodpigeon; the only bit missing at that point was the whole of the head. I left the crows to get on with clearing up. All they left, apart from feathers, were the two wings and the heart.
What brings down a woodpigeon, eats the head and then goes?
Any suggestions welcome.

The Grim Reaper...

Hopefully, you'll get an answer, Alan, because we too found a headless corpse, a young blackbird, in the garden, the rest of the body completely undamaged, just the head gone. We thought it might be a cat which had been disturbed but that would have played with the bird first, no doubt, and made a mess of it.

So I would be interested if anybody knows the answer!

See above.

Hi Alan. It has to be a bird of prey. Do you have Goshawk in your area? Female Sparrowhawks and some falcons (not Kestrels) are known to do this. They tear the head off and eat the brain which, it seems, is a raptor delicacy! Nice! Cheers.

Another headless blackbird on our plot too. We do have birds of prey around and the thought of them killing the blackbird just for its head makes me cringe!

The brain is essentially fat, so if hunting is easy...

American Bears on the salmon run will just eat the head and skin from a salmon if the fishing is easy, as those are the highest fat content parts.