What’s this bird of Prey in my Garden?

Eldi_Dos

Keep_pedalling said:

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 a kill away, which is why they often lose a kill to other predators such as magpies or foxes. 

Kestrel will certainly take pigeon at this time of year, the kill of the prey on the ground is more a Kestrel characteristic than a Hawks, which drew me to make that conclusion.

Keep_pedalling

Eldi_Dos said:

Keep_pedalling said:

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 a kill away, which is why they often lose a kill to other predators such as magpies or foxes. 

Kestrel will certainly take pigeon at this time of year, the kill of the prey on the ground is more a Kestrel characteristic than a Hawks, which drew me to make that conclusion.

I have never seen a Kestrel take a pigeon, but I have had several Sparrowhawk kills in my garden (all taken on the ground), but the clincher here is size, kestrels are about the same size os a magpie and this bird is clearly far larger. 

MrsStepford

I live on the edge of a town and there are kestrels. 

Apodemus

The bird of prey in the picture looks a lot bigger than the magpie, though, while both kestrel and sparrowhawk would be roughly the same size as a magpie.   My initial thought was that it was a buzzard.  A buzzard is less likely to bring down an active, live pigeon but it might have got lucky or the pigeon may have been sick.