Anybody have any experience taking quail (bobs specifically) with a kestrel? i have a male and he can take some pretty large birds, he has takin quite a few pidgeons at the co-op, he flies WAY up and stoops, and when he hits the feathers fly, he has takin the head off of a couple, but they are slow and i just don't know if he can catch and overpower a quail, i would just take him and try it but its a ways away and i don't want to waste that liquid gold we call gas and have to shoot them with a 20ga, because whats the fun in that
central US, and he definetly does, he doesn't so much take them as knock them out of the air, but a couple times i have walked up and there have been no heads on the pidgeon , if i had to guess i would say he has taken 11 or 12, 2 or 3 were found headless, he stoops them from pretty high hits them and hangs on until right before they hit the ground and he jumps off, its killed them every time. its a hell of a deal to watch. I could try and get it on video if you want
oh yeah he's an american
let me add something else, his kill ratio isnt the best ever sometimes he aborts mission cause he knows he is gonna miss, sometimes he gets feathers, i have put him out on pidgeons 20-25 times so he is around 50%, getting him to take a pidgeon was an accident he hit one when we were flying on mice in a barn, i was in the door way he was inside and he flew out the top i backed up to see if i could see him and he was headed straight up, then he stopped, and dropped i didn't even see the pidgeon until he hit it, it looked like it exploded with all the feathers, and he rode it all the way to the ground, luckily he landed in a wheat field and was only slightly dazed, a couple days later after i made sure he was ok i took him to the co-op
I would love to see a video of that. That kestrel's one tough son of a gun. Quail will fight and struggle, but I can't say it'd be any tougher than a pigeon would.
Post by Falcon Boy on May 26, 2006 14:28:09 GMT -5
why is someone breeding ami kestrels? doesnt make sence to me with so many out there...
anyways, sounds like you have a great bird on your hands! I had never heard of a tiercel kbird taking pigeons, he would probably be an exception rather than the rule. Any pics of him? Whats his flying weight?
Falcon Boy Apprentice Falconry Administrator
Ethics make the individual, not the other way around.
i have pics of him when he was young, although he isn't very old still, i got him as an eyas, but he wasn't fresh out of the egg he could just barely not fly very far(i guess that would still be an eyas), my sponsor has him fattened up a little, since i only hunt him in the fall, he is a little overweight i just take him out to fly every other day, but we are going to try him on doves this year so i'll start him down pretty soon. he would fly at 102ish g, they tell me he is the size of a female, i've only seen one other kessie fly besides him and he is way bigger.
he watches them flush then gets above them, he singles them out to i'm pretty sure because i walk around and i'll jump one and it will fly into groups that are circling, but he still gets that bird out of the group( i noticed this from brown and white pidgeons) i can try and get it on film again if i can find a better camcorder, i tried with mine and he was moving so fast it looked like a dot hitting a dot because i had to zoom out so far. wow i didn't know it was that big a deal when i hunted him with the other kessie that guy didn't act like it was a big deal,
My tiercel kestrel nailed a few pigeons in his time. I never intentionally flew him on them but he would just grab on and not let go till i got there to help, he loved a crop full of fresh pigeon!