Pigeon predators: What animals eat pigeons?

Pigeons are a bird species, which you can commonly find in many parts of the world. Along with that, you should also keep in mind that pigeons who live out there in the world are being preyed by numerous animals as well. From this article, we will share detailed information about the common and most popular predators that pigeons have.

Among the predators that hunt pigeons, ground predators are limited. That’s because pigeons are capable of flying and ensuring their own survival. Due to the same reason, you will also notice that the groups of animals who attack and kill pigeons are limited as well.

The predators of pigeons are mainly composed out of the birds of prey. They include sparrow hawks and peregrine falcons. In some of the instances, we can also see how hawks are killing pigeons for food as well. All these bird species are strong and quick when compared to pigeons. Due to the same reason, they find it as an easy task to kill pigeons as well.

However, it is important to take a look at the ground based predators that pigeons have as well. Even though the number of predators that pigeons have are limited, you cannot simply ignore the threat that they are capable of imposing on the pigeons. Hence, you should take a look at the threat that all the ground based pigeons are imposing.

Some of the most prominent ground based predators that pigeons have in the urban areas include domestic cats and rats. In some of the instances, you will be able to find how certain domestic dog breeds attack the pigeons as well. Likewise, the ground based predators that pigeons have in the wild include snakes, corvids and foxes. One of the surprising facts about pigeons is that they are being killed by rats. The pigeons who are resting on the branches of trees are widely being attacked by the rats.

Pigeons don’t have any special self-defense mechanisms. They are only capable of flying in order to ensure their own survival. Due to the same reason, we often see how they become successful with overcoming the attacks that they get from the ground based predators. However, they fail to deal with the attacks that they get from the aerial predators in most of the instances. This is something that you will need to keep in your mind.

Some of the people say that the pigeons are not killed by domestic cats. The domestic cats usually have access to lots of food options. However, it is still possible to see how some of the domestic cats are attacking pigeons and killing them for food. Therefore, you cannot simply ignore the threat that the pigeons face from the domestic cats. The same applies for domestic dogs as well.

Since pigeons prefer to spend their time in urban areas due to the abundant supply of foods, they are exposed to this risk as well.


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