Hawk scared off pet pigeon - will she come back?

[sevenbabychicks]

This morning a hawk swooped in on one of my hens. I was able to pull it off before it killed her (I hope... no obvious injuries, but she is a little droopy), but in the melee, my pet pigeon got scared and took off. I've raised her since finding her as a squab in my yard this spring, so she is super tame and seemed to have no inclination to leave the yard before now (she loves hanging out with the chickens).

I watched her fly off, and she seemed to start circling back and land on a neighbor's roof - but I couldn't be sure because trees were obscuring the view. A bunch of crows chased the hawk off, so I don't think it got her. But it's now been several hours and she hasn't come back, so I'm worried another one got her.

Or - and here's what I'm hoping - she's just laying low until she's confident the coast is clear. My chickens do this for hours after a predator event; do pigeons do this, too?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

 

[Lozuufy]

Hopefully she will be back soon, if not then maybe you could drive around looking for her, check the windows and roofs of buildings especially, that's where mine would go.
My first few pigeons were hand raised and would follow me everywhere, a couple times they were chased by a hawk and usually they came back a couple hours later. Once time my favorite pigeon disappeared and we drove around looking for her and found her trying to get into our post office! Another time she disappeared for 2 weeks and then returned and acted like she had just gone for a quick fly and didn't think she'd been missed. I later found out that she had been at a neighbors that had pigeons and was bossing his around like she owned the coop. Since then I haven't let her out of the pigeon cage, especially since we have a pair of hawks nesting nearby.

Good luck, hope yours comes back safely!

 

[sevenbabychicks]

Thank you for that! I totally laughed out loud at your post office story! What a bird. It's so heartening to read that they can come back.

I've walked around the surrounding blocks several times today, and am about to go out again. Then if she hasn't come back by tonight, I'll start putting out flyers. If she does come back, that'll be the end of morning fly-time; I'm going to keep all birds in the pen until the hawk loses interest (though hopefully being man-handled by me this morning helped dissuade it).

 

[Lozuufy]

Lol yeah, she has quite the personality, her name is Nutty and she is the pigeon in my profile pic. What's your pigeons name?

 

[PerfectPlumage]

This morning a hawk swooped in on one of my hens. I was able to pull it off before it killed her (I hope... no obvious injuries, but she is a little droopy), but in the melee, my pet pigeon got scared and took off. I've raised her since finding her as a squab in my yard this spring, so she is super tame and seemed to have no inclination to leave the yard before now (she loves hanging out with the chickens).

I watched her fly off, and she seemed to start circling back and land on a neighbor's roof - but I couldn't be sure because trees were obscuring the view. A bunch of crows chased the hawk off, so I don't think it got her. But it's now been several hours and she hasn't come back, so I'm worried another one got her.

Or - and here's what I'm hoping - she's just laying low until she's confident the coast is clear. My chickens do this for hours after a predator event; do pigeons do this, too?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

If you find her, give her a leg band. Write your contact info on the leg band, so if she gets lost again, if someone finds her they can contact you and tell you.

 

[sevenbabychicks]

Aw, Nutty's beautiful! Mine's Piha - it's Finnish for "yard," cause that's where I found her.

Did another walk around the block. No dice Yeah, I'm kicking myself about a leg band. I've been thinking about it from time to time, but would forget by the time I got to my computer. Definitely getting one of those if she comes back.

Here's a pic of her when she was a bit younger. She's been getting insane metallic purple feathers around her neck; I've been really looking forward to seeing her all decked out in her adult plumage.

H

 

[PerfectPlumage]

Aw, Nutty's beautiful! Mine's Piha - it's Finnish for "yard," cause that's where I found her.

Did another walk around the block. No dice Yeah, I'm kicking myself about a leg band. I've been thinking about it from time to time, but would forget by the time I got to my computer. Definitely getting one of those if she comes back.

Here's a pic of her when she was a bit younger. She's been getting insane metallic purple feathers around her neck; I've been really looking forward to seeing her all decked out in her adult plumage.

H

She's beautiful!

 

[Lozuufy]

Piha is really beautiful! Really hope she returns.

 

[sevenbabychicks]

Found her!!! She was on a roof a couple blocks down, opposite from the direction she was flying this morning. I was just about to give up for the night when I saw. She was super scared and it took awhile to coax her down, but she's inside and safe now and won't get off my shoulder. One thing's for sure: she's not a homing pigeon.

Thanks so much for the advice and support! Piha also thanks you for the compliments

 

[Lozuufy]

Yay!!!