Pigeon autopsy - and what it may tell us.

21st September 2026 - Carole M was greeted by the somewhat grizzly sight of the remains of a pigeon in her garden, and wondered what may have killed it, fed from it and removed the head - maybe a Sparrowhawk, or a cat, or what?

In this case, the kill seems likely to be the work of a Sparrowhawk, followed by scavenging from corvids (crow family). There are some clues you can look for to help determine in cases like this. 

After making a kill, a Sparrowhawk will pluck the feathers individually, leaving the feathers with the quill largely intact, before typically scattering them in a circle around the kill. Mammals (cat, fox etc) will bite through the feathers to get at the fleas, leaving bitten-through half-feathers on the carcass, as well as eating more of them. 

Then, a Sparrowhawk will focus primarily on eating the flesh off the breast muscles, often leaving the breastbone and the rest the carcass largely intact. This will typically happen at the kill site. Whereas Mammals will bite through the whole carcass, skin, meat, bones - the lot, crunching up everything, and so leaving the carcass appearing more generally mauled. This may also be done at the kill site, but being stronger, a mammal may drag the carcass somewhere more covered to eat it there. 

Finally, in both cases Corvids (crows, magpies etc) often attend afterwards to scavenge the carcass, often pecking at and removing the eyes and the head. Red Kite may also scavenge a carcass, but this would be less likely to occur in a garden near houses.