Help please

[Tristanw96]

I believe it is a red tail, not 100 percent though, I moved her to the most visible spot and have her about 4 feet off the ground, I lived in Miami for awhile lol I'm in North Florida now, Gainesville area. Hopefully your right about the hawk though, he hasn't lost persistence.

 

[biophiliac]

View attachment 1083974

She's very nice, looks mad tho, like she'll give him an earful when he get's back. We have a hawk nest nearby and I posted some pics of their fledgling on the Pigeon Bulletin Board thread. There's some funny stuff there too. The little birds harass the hawks all the time. Even ride on their backs like a surfboard. Our Red Tails mostly go for rodents.

 

[biophiliac]

View attachment 1083983I'm afraid this hawk is planning an assassination attempt.

Nice photography.
Maybe your bird is spooked by the hawks presence [if he's smart].

 

[Legendchicken]

Oh good lord i hope he will be ok. I have never had a pet pidgeon but im fasinated with doves and pidgeon. Doves and pidgeon have a VERY good scence of direction so as long s he knows that is its home he should be fine with returning

 

[Legendchicken]

I would advise staying outside in order to deter the hawk. Try and scare the hawk if u can. I have a drone and i use it to chase hawks to keep em away from the chickens

 

[biophiliac]

I would advise staying outside in order to deter the hawk. Try and scare the hawk if u can. I have a drone and i use it to chase hawks to keep em away from the chickens

I was thinking along those lines too. Some people use firecracker to scare away hawks. I'm just nervous the noise might spook his bird even more. Maybe the drone would be better.... I'll just golook for my spare drone?

 

[Legendchicken]

Yes good point maybe if he just stands out there scince the birds not scared of him

 

[Tristanw96]

Lmao that's brilliant! I pulled my car into the back yard and I've been laying on the hood for what seems to be an eternity looking into the tree where I last seen him, I think he will come home when the hawk stops harassing him.. Hopefully. Thanks for all the advice!!

 

[LamarshFish]

I was new to starting a loft this past spring, and will try to offer some input.

First, are your pigeons homers? If you think they are, how sure are you that they are? If you know they are not, and that pigeon is out of sight, I think the chances of it coming back are somewhat low. I'm uncertain how likely it is for non-homing performance breeds to return back to a loft when they fly out of sight...

Second, you said the pigeon is 5 months old, but you also said that you've only had it just shy of a month? Where was it for the first 4 months of its life? Did it fly? If it flew, and it is a homer, you can expect that it likely returned to that loft or died trying. If it never flew, there are other issues I'll go over below.

If the bird never flew in or around another loft, and is a homer, you have more potential issues. There are basically two ways to start a loft of homers--(1) start it with baby pigeons who are born in your loft (which means you have to breed adult, prisoner pigeons in your loft), or (2) start with young squeakers born elsewhere. The former method is the easiest. The latter method, using young squeakers born elsewhere, is harder, but doable. It is the method I have had to use, because I didn't own any birds. I learned there is a pretty small window of settling birds and flying them. If you wait too long and the birds grow too old and become too strong on the wing, they may fly too far before they have routed the area, and get lost. Homing pigeons can get lost if they have not routed an area yet and have not settled into a home loft.

How many times had you let these pigeons out and had them just simply hang in the yard? Did they ever leave your yard and take a lap or disappear for some time? This is called "routing" or "tripping", and it is what you want homers to do after they are comfortable with your yard and loft, because it is this that allows them to memorize the area, landmarks, etc, and visually (or perhaps audibly or using smell, depending on what theory you subscribe to in terms of how homing pigeons home) figure out how to get back to their loft.

So, perhaps your bird just decided to start routing, and will be back soon. Does he know how to get back into his loft? Is there a bob door? How long has he been gone for?

I started my loft over 3 months ago, and have had a total of 18 birds, and currently have 12, and have lost a total of 5 during this whole process. The ones I lost simply did not return once they started routing, either because they got lost or killed by a predator (I can only assume they simply got lost).

Lots of questions you need to ask yourself. As far as the hawk goes, don't dwell on it too much, because as much as you want to, staring at the sky or thinking about it is not going to change whether he wants to eat your bird--they have wings and you don't, and it is a federal crime to kill them. If it makes you feel any better, during this time of year pigeons shouldn't be as much on a hawk's menu as much as ground critters. You have more to worry about hawks in the winter months. To boot, a pigeon is a fast prey for a hawk to kill, and they will usually go for an easier kill. Falcons, on the other hand, they attack from above at speeds that exceed that of a pigeon, when a pigeon cannot even see them coming--so if a falcon puts a pigeon in its sights, it's bad news for the pigeon.

If the hawk is hanging around, and you are concerned your bird is hiding or something like that, perhaps you can try to get creative and find a way to make the hawk disappear. They will often flee if you just shoot a shotgun in the air. Maybe lob a bottle rocket in its general direction or something creative like that.

 

[Tristanw96]

You are a pigeon genius, my birds are homers as far as my Knowledge goes. I decided to leave to a friends for an hour or 2 because some things take time and he may not be comfortable with me hanging around. He was previously at someones house in tampa, which is over 200 miles away from me. He has never flown from what ive been told and it showed when he first took flight. I have another older male that I'm bringing over to call him back. Hopefully it works, thanks allot!