Birds of Prey:
Owls and hawks are predators not only to rodents on our properties but also to the smaller birds such as the sparrows or chickadees. Owls typically eat mostly mice, moles, shrews, rats, gophers, squirrels and only a small part of it’s food is birds some of which are grouse, quail, jays, cardinals, crows and small birds as shown in the “What Birds Owls Consume” table.
| Barn Owl | Pigeons, jays, Green Herons, sparrows, Grackles, starlings, meadowlarks, flickers, Bluebirds, swallows, towhees |
| Barred Owl | Doves, grouse, quail, flickers, crows, jays, Cardinals |
| Burrowing Owl | Sparrows, vireos, meadowlarks, Horned Larks |
| Great Horned Owl | Grebes, ducks, geese, bitterns, rails, coots, grouse, Mourning Doves, meadowlarks, juncos, sparrows, robins, mockingbirds, jays, flickers |
| Hawk Owl | Ruffed Grouse, sparrows |
| Long-eared Owl | Starlings, Blue Jays, Cardinals, towhees, juncos, Horned Larks, Red-winged Blackbirds, meadowlarks, Brown Thrashers, Bluebirds, American Goldfinches |
| Saw-whet Owl | Sparrows, juncos |
| Short-eared Owl | Meadowlarks, Savannah Sparrow, Sharp-tailed Sparrows, other sparrows |
| Screech Owl | Ruffed Grouse, pigeons, quail, Eastern Phoebe, Horned Lark, Blue Jay, starling, blackbirds, American Goldfinch, juncos, sparrows |
| Snowy Owl | Grebes, ducks, coots, sandpipers, crows |
There are many species of hawks that eat birds also. The following table shows the feeding habits of some hawks:
| Insects | Rats/ Mice |
Frogs/ Snakes |
Aquatic | Small Birds |
Poultry | Game Birds |
Rabbits/ Squirrels |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 32 | 28 | 25 | 5.3 | 6.0 | 1.4 | .9 | .9 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 10.5 | 55 | 6.1 | 1.5 | 9.2 | 6.3 | 2.1 | 9.3 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 6.5 | 72 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 8.6 | |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 39.7 | 23 | 30.9 | 2 | 3.4 | .5 | .5 | |
| American Kestral | 63.5 | 20.3 | 7.8 | 8.4 | ||||
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | .7 | 2.6 | .1 | 96.4 | .1 | .1 | ||
| Cooper’s Hawk | 3.3 | 17 | 1 | 55 | 10 | 12 | 1.7 | |
| Marsh Hawk | 3.3 | 33 | 4.1 | .1 | 41 | 2.3 | 7.2 | 9 |
The most serious problem to birds are cats which are known to capture birds even from the nest. Homeless cats are most destructive at night and early morning hours.
Dogs tend to be less serious due to their inability to catch birds, but still pose a threat. Dogs should not be unattended during the nesting season since they pose a problem for ground-nesting birds.
Wild Animals
Some bird nests are destroyed by foxes, opossums, weasels, racoons and snakes and waterfowl and game birds suffer loss from raccoons and foxes.
Humans
It’s hard to believe that even Humans are predators to birds. Direct destruction of birds occurs when they are killed for food, feathers, sport and even museum specimens. During hunting season, birds are often killed by hunters simply because they offer a moving target and sometimes birds are killed by us just simply driving our cars.