What’s this bird of Prey in my Garden?

FrankFalcon

Hi guys

I know this post is not money saving, and one can’t really say it is gardening related, so please remove this thread if not allowed. 

Woke up this morning to find Pigeon feathers all over the grass in the back Garden. Went back on the camera and saw a video of this huge bird with a Pigeon in its claws. At the start of the video the Pigeon is still alive but the huge bird quickly plucked it and killed it. All this whilst a Magpie was trying to apparently rescue the Pigeon by constantly attacking the Big Bird. (But being careful enough not to get too close).  You can see the huge bird has a White beak at the end and what looks like a couple of White spots on the back of his head. 

This area of North West UK is not known for birds of Prey because it is very built up. 

Any ideas? 

-taff

Possibly a sparrowhawk but I am guessing

Keep_pedalling

Picture does not show a great deal of detail but almost certainly a sparrowhawk.

KajiKita

Looking at the rough proportions / shape I would say sparrowhawk too. 

I suspect that the magpie was trying to get a share of dinner …

KK

p00hsticks

FrankFalcon said:

All this whilst a Magpie was trying to apparently rescue the Pigeon by constantly attacking the Big Bird. (But being careful enough not to get too close). 

On the contrary, I suspect the magpie was wading in for a share of the spoil, as smaller birds make up part of their diet  (my father was constantly having to try scare them off of nestlings)

Dustyevsky

Looks quite chunky, but I'll go with sparrowhawk too, and add that magpies have few philanthropic tendencies.

powerspowers

I’m not a bird expert either but had a sparrow hawk (I think) in the garden recently tgat the magpies were really not happy with, they kept dive bombing it. I think we have magpie chicks nearby and they were being protective. They will eat pigeon though if someone else can kill it. 

I’m also in a built up area but fairly near to a country park. 

On-the-coast

Serendipitous choice of username OP! 

+1 sparrowhawk probably. 

+1 to magpies being highly destructive of small birds & nests (and being very intelligent too)

Eldi_Dos

Not a relative Frank?
I will go with female Kestrel apparently at this time of year inexperienced fledging's are something they target.

Keep_pedalling

Eldi_Dos said:

Not a relative Frank?
I will go with female Kestrel apparently at this time of year inexperienced fledging's are something they target.

Not a Kestrel, they don’t tend to inhabit urban areas and they are not equipped to kill a pigeon. The two birds that do take urban pigeons are female Sparrowhawks (the smaller males tend to go for smaller birds) and Peregrines. The latter capture their prey in flight are carry them to a high point for consumption. Sparrowhawks strike ground targets and will feed at the point of kill as they can’t carry such a large kill away, which is why they often lose a kill to other predators such as magpies or foxes. 

badger09

Possibly a female Sparrowhawk as it looks too big for a male. Can you see the colour of its eyes on your video? Sparrowhawk’s are yellow.