i only ment the great horned owls and goshawks were good idea as BOPs to have around, and would be better having a dominant pair of either, as theyd chase or kill other BOPs off, and they primarily prefer land game, except the horned owls who will hunt chickens fiercly when nesting, as they will work together and have one sit on top of wired top coop and/or one at sides, and will alternate making chickens into frenzy then snip heads ect off as the chickens frantically stick them through or too close (ive actually seen this in person and on cams). DNR allows for use of sandbags shot at BOPs as non lethal deturant (i asked), so said paintballs should be fine, as long as toxicity to the paint is not discovered to be an issue. though they advocate having them come and trap and rehab and relocate (they usually just kill or keep for breeding programs ive found in personal experiance with working with them in past). ive done hawk rehab, and falconry and had a nasty female goshawk that wouldnt touch a dead layed open pigeon even, but would take after fiercely any other BOP she happened upon in the sky, and was led to believe it was quite normal as she saw me as her mate and were we lived and areas hunted our territory. had a great horned owl that was wild that lived up in nich of my condo roof at my condo, and it never messed with the pigeons, though did eye up the nests, and freaked out the crows, ate the rats and squirrels, and chased all the redtails and coopers hawks off. it didnt do to well i think against the turkey vultures though. when they moved in it disapeared suddenly after being harrassed by them, and a young turkey vulture was constantly trying to rob my nests and take young birds, nothing but a good sturdy broom detoured it. not trying to be trouble and was misunderstood, just saying some basics that seemed to work for me and mostly others that have tried to help me out in prevention. i think the hawks are pretty and one of each kind visiting keeps my flying types strong culling week, but your situation sounds just horrible and needs to be dealt with. get a fence around area birds hang out, get a couple dogs and train them to guard or ignore your birds, and encourage them to attack BOPs. simplest solution thats as low maintainance as filling feed and water, and removing poop, things youll have to do for pidgies anyway.
