Man is by far the greatest predator of pigeons. Yet they also have plenty of other predators too including Falcons, Sparrowhawks, Owls, Foxes, Ferrets, Snakes, Rats, Cats, Dogs and more.
Evidence of man’s relationship with pigeons has been discovered as far back in history as 5,000 years and in diverse parts of the globe.
Pigeons have been used by man for their decorative purposes, their utility as messenger birds and as a food source.
Although their relationship with man has been constant, attitudes towards them have changed back and forth through time.
They are both prized and considered as pests.
Pigeons have been used as religious symbols, but also as sacrifices in religious ceremonies.
In Britain, archaeologists have found the remains of a dovecote that is believed to date back to the 12th century.
Back in those times pigeons were the reserve of the nobility and high born persons.
Pigeon meat was a delicacy only for the likes of lords and ladies. After the Norman Conquest, owning pigeons became a feudal right.
It is known that this same stratum of society also used pigeons as one of the food sources with which to feed their household servants.
By the 16th century these restrictions on ownership had become redundant and commercial farming of pigeons as a cheap source of food to feed the poor started.
Pigeons went from a delicacy of the rich to a staple diet for the poor. The pigeon’s own fertility and fast breeding cycle had condemned it to this role.
In the 19th century, the American passenger pigeon was hunted to extinction because of its value as a food source; the last one died in 1914.
Despite massive culling efforts all over the world for decades, the pigeon population continues to thrive and grow.
Humans may be the most devastating predator of pigeons, but they aren’t the only ones…
Common Pigeon Predators:
Pigeons have many predators in the natural world, here are some of the more common ones:
Falcons
Falcons such as the Peregrine falcon and the common Kestrel are some of those species that have adapted to urban life. They have built their nests on high buildings in urban areas where they have an abundant food source by preying on feral pigeons.
Falcons will also take other birds, but in many cities pigeons make up a large share of a peregrine’s diet.
Dawn and dusk are their favourite hunting hours but will also hunt at night when pigeons are especially vulnerable because of their poor night vision.
Also, roosting in flocks makes them an easy target.
Falcons usually kill or stun their prey with their clenched talons and then pluck it out of the air.
They will give chase to any prey which survives the initial attack.
In the UK, following a decline in the numbers due to the wide use of pesticides, the peregrine population has recovered strongly since those pesticides were banned, helped by plentiful food such as pigeons in both rural and urban areas.
Sparrowhawks
Sparrowhawks prey on other birds and it is estimated their prey includes around 120 other species, one of which is pigeons.
They attack from cover by ambush; that’s why they love woodland areas.
They will even use the cover of gardens in built-up areas or other kinds of cover in which to hunt from.
They are very versatile predators with at least 7 different methods of attack.
Only around one attack in ten succeeds, and it is mainly the larger female sparrowhawks that take pigeons.
Other hawk species will also see pigeons as prey.
Having discussed the falcons and hawks as the pigeon’s major predators, it should be noted that this natural instinct of the birds of prey is being used by humans for the purpose of pigeon control.
There are raptor-specific companies competing with regular pest control services in pigeon removal. Using raptors to catch pigeons is often marketed as “green” or “natural” and is also described as humane.
This is in fact, not credible. The raptor birds will catch and rip a pigeon to pieces to eat it in exactly the same way as wild raptors.
This practice has its roots in falconry which is deemed a blood sport.
There is a lot of negativity about using raptors to catch pigeons but in Britain, although not endorsed by DEFRA (opens in new tab) (who administer the Wildlife and Countryside Act) it is an accepted method of bird control around airports and air bases where the risk of bird strikes is high.
The mere presence of raptors switches in the pigeon’s natural instinct to flee to prevent them becoming prey.
This method has also been endorsed as a method of clearing pigeons and other flocks of birds (gulls) from landfill sites but the DEFRA stance is
“Although expensive and time consuming, falconry has the potential to remove hazardous birds from areas of land more quickly than can be achieved using conventional bird control methods, and they can also extend their influence into surrounding land where access may be restricted. However, other bird-scaring methods are often equally or more effective and economical”.
Owls
Owls are known to eat other birds.
Each of the different owl species has its known preferences, but the sheer abundance of feral pigeons suggests that pigeons are on the menu, but in more of an opportunistic nature.
It is said that crows, also rooks, and ravens, and seagulls will also attack and eat pigeons.
You can find videos of these attacks, but there is little evidence to suggest that it is natural or normal hunting behavior.
Foxes
Foxes are omnivorous creatures, which means they will eat almost anything from fruit to carrion.
They also go after wildfowl. It is well known that they are partial to chickens, so entering a dovecote or pigeon loft is to be expected.
It is also more than likely that a fox would see a feral pigeon as prey, if it were feeding on the ground.
Over the years, foxes have made incursions into suburban and urban areas because of the readily available food sources.
Some have even set up dens in the inner cities, instead of just visiting.
With the sheer numbers of feral pigeons and the foxes’ propensity for eating anything, then obviously they can be counted as natural predators.
Ferrets
Ferrets will eat pigeons as they are meat eaters and have a preference for fowl. Pigeons are one of the recommended foods for ferret owners to give to their animals.
An odd fact about ferrets is that they can be trained to eat certain foods.
What you give them to eat as babies, which is within their first 6 months, will determine their adult eating habits. Ferrets ‘imprint’ the kind of food they receive in their memories.
So, if a captive ferret or feral one receives pigeon in its diet as a youngster, it will see pigeons as natural prey.
They will also eat pigeon’s eggs. As ferrets are nocturnal hunters, roosting pigeons will be seen as easy prey.
Snakes
There are only 3 native snakes in Britain and none is a real danger to a full-grown pigeon, though an adder may occasionally take eggs or chicks from a nest low in a bush.
Pigeons that build their nests in bushes may be in danger of these snakes eating their eggs or fledglings if left unattended.
As British snakes hibernate during winter, they would only be a danger during the spring and summer months.
Rats
Rats will kill birds to eat and where there is an abundance of pigeons it is likely that they will see them as easy prey.
Although rats stick to the easiest food sources, a roosting pigeon may attract them.
Usually, if you see one rat that means that there are others close by. Rats can easily swarm pigeons in a loft or dovecote where they have no means of escape.
Woodland or feral pigeons are much harder to surprise. Their eggs and fledglings will be in the most danger.
Cats
Cats are natural hunters and despite thousands of years of domestication they still retain their hunting instincts.
Feral cats will certainly see pigeons as their natural prey.
Household cats don’t need to hunt for their food, but the killer instinct hasn’t been bred out of them.
Domestic cat populations often have a detrimental impact on local wildlife. If you own a cat there are things that you can do to stop your cat from hunting, catching and killing birds.
Cats are superb climbers and jumpers, plus their stealth method of coming upon their prey puts them at the top of the prime predators of pigeons, whether in a rural or urban setting.
They have the ability to reach roosting or nesting birds wherever they are. As cats will prowl by day or by night, no pigeon is safe from them.
It can be imagined that due to the huge population of cats, both domesticated and feral, against the equally huge population of pigeons, that cats take a heavy toll of pigeon lives.
Domesticated cats will hunt for sport, not food, as it is a natural instinct for them.
Dogs
Dogs will chase anything, and pigeons are no exception.
Whether or not they can actually catch any is another matter.
Although pigeons and other birds aren’t natural prey for dogs, many different breeds of dog have been bred for hunting.
Again, this inclination to chase and hunt hasn’t been bred out of dogs. Some breeds have been bred to flush out or retrieve game birds such as pigeons and so the instinct is still retained.
Only pigeons on the ground need to fear dogs. For most dogs, movement triggers the chase instinct and nowadays in most breeds, it is more an invitation to play than hunting for prey to eat.
Conclusion
It can be said that pigeons have a great range of natural predators. The lives of pigeons are short and fraught with danger.
Despite that, because of their rapid breeding cycles, they are still thriving in untold numbers.
Do Buzzards Eat Pigeons?
The answer is, ‘Yes they do.’ It seems that buzzards will eat almost anything, including any pigeon that comes along.
Buzzards are raptors.
They aren’t particularly fussy about where their food comes from.
They are more famed for eating small mammals than anything else, but they also eat birds.
The common buzzard (opens in new tab) mostly eats small mammals such as voles and rabbits, but it also takes birds.
They seem to like crows, woodpeckers and pigeons, but that isn’t the limit of the list.
Buzzards are a type of hawk.
In some regions of the world they are called hawks instead of buzzards.
A popular misconception is to confuse them with vultures.
The difference is that vultures are scavengers and eat carrion. In other words, anything that is already dead.
Buzzards, on the other hand, are hunters.
They hunt live prey.
Although in most regions the names are separate, in North America they seem to be interchangeable.
Sometimes the only way to distinguish between the two is to use their scientific names.
There are around 30 species of true buzzards (the genus Buteo), but there are also quite a lot of sub-species too.
- They can be found all over the world except Antarctica
- They are the most common type of day time raptor in Europe
- Some buzzards whose habitat is in the Northern Hemisphere migrate for the winter
- Some travel as far as South Africa
- Others are all year round residents of their habitats
- The global population number in the millions
- They are tree dwellers
- Buzzards seem resilient to modern pollution and are thriving
These predatory birds will rob eggs of other birds and reptiles, plus eat the birds and the reptiles themselves.
They are known to eat insects like caterpillars, beetles and even ants.
Do Kestrels Eat Pigeons?
Kestrels are a bird of prey and a type of falcon.
This means they follow a carnivorous diet with mouse-sized prey their favoured meal, but they also take small birds and, occasionally, young or weak pigeons.
Some birds are better equipped to be hunters and that is the case with the raptor family.
It is all down to position in the food chain and carnivorous kestrels are higher up the chain than the pigeon.
Alongside small mammals, another animal group that can make up a considerable portion of a kestrel’s diet are small birds.
In particular, kestrels have been cited as being effective hunters of birds that fall under the ‘passerine’ label.
You might think that narrows things down, but passerines (opens in new tab) make up more than half of all the bird species!
Passerines are often called perching birds: three toes point forwards and one backwards, which helps them grip a perch.
Some of the birds that kestrels eat include:
- Starlings
- Meadow Pipits
- Robins
- Sparrows
- Collared Doves
- Turtle Doves
- Skylarks
- Swifts
- Young blackbirds
In most environments, small birds make up more of the kestrel’s diet during late spring when there is an abundance of fledglings ill-equipped to protect themselves against a swift raptor.
So if it’s established that “small” is the unifier among the common prey of the kestrel, where do pigeons fit in?
The first question is whether or not a pigeon is a passerine. The answer is no.
Pigeons are good perchers and their toes are arranged in a similar way, but they belong to a separate order, the Columbiformes, and differ from passerines in several features, including details of their foot structure.
Do Magpies Kill Pigeons?
Magpies are not birds of prey, so they are less of a threat to pigeons than hawks, falcons and owls. They do attack pigeons, mostly to drive them away from food, and sometimes kill them. See Do magpies kill pigeons? for more.
Last updated 23 October 2026 · Hunting