Thunderbird Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 (edited) OK, we had dead pigeon which had probably been lying in the crop for an hour and a half or so, upon retrieval the back of its head was completely free of skin and feathers and the skull exposed. You could knock your knuckle against the dome. Opinion was it might be a beetle that tries to dig into the head but it did a hell of a good job in a short time. Anyone else seen this? Edited August 26, 2012 by Thunderbird Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 I've seen it several times but I have no idea what caused it. On every occasion the bird had been shot that day and set up as a decoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 I don't know about beetles, but I have had rats gnaw at decoys and even try to drag them away ( always on wheat stubbles). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon pete Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 would it be rats or stoats ?,we had a barn conversion a few years back and the rabbits would burrow in the sand over the weekends and have young ,we also had a load of old tin sheets next to it where we had rats,we would dig out the rabbits as we didn't want them in the mixer and a lot of the young had the back of there heads missing ,and we lifted up the tin sheets and in amongts the rats nest were young dead rabbits with heads chewed ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 In my example, they were almost all definitely rats, some I saw and others I shot. Some of the gnawing could have been stoats, or weasels, or even carnivorous beetles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rangey Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 OK, we had dead pigeon which had probably been lying in the crop for an hour and a half or so, upon retrieval the back of its head was completely free of skin and feathers and the skull exposed. You could knock your knuckle against the dome. Opinion was it might be a beetle that tries to dig into the head but it did a hell of a good job in a short time. Anyone else seen this? had exactly the same thing yesterday,the bird was picked within 10 min so can only assume it was in this state before i shot it.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted August 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 Hmm. It was weird. The bone was exposed (but not that I could see damaged) but it certainly looked like it had been like it for a while. I have to say it was a slightly disconcerting sight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12Greygrouse Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Had a similar thing about a few weeks ago shooting over a rape field. Shot the pigeon and then set it up as a decoy, after 2 hours shooting I packed up and on picking up the pigeon noticed that its skull was exposed. It seemed too precise for any shot or a result of it falling out of the sky, really puzzled me. Having read this thread there are a lot of stoats in that area but I'm pretty sure I would have noticed movement within the decoys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 A stoat would have removed the whole bird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted August 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Yes that's what I would have thought. I mean the skull was dry. As a bone, you might say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroku moocher Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 the skin is pretty thin i reckon it is done as the bird hits the ground and the skin grazes and tears open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 I've had another theory about this. Stallions bite their mares on the neck and some species of cock birds hold onto the neck feathers of the females when they are mounting them. Could this be the reason for the bare patches? Of course the affected birds would all have to be female or my theory is blown away unless we are seeing the first instances of gay wood pigeon behaviour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Double Trouble Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 I've had another theory about this. Stallions bite their mares on the neck and some species of cock birds hold onto the neck feathers of the females when they are mounting them. Could this be the reason for the bare patches? Of course the affected birds would all have to be female or my theory is blown away unless we are seeing the first instances of gay wood pigeon behaviour. Lol at the last bit!! Its like the X Files! interesting reading. Do birds suffer with baldness? I have seen wild and caged birds flying with hardly any body feathers but never the head Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted September 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 I should have taken a pic. It was really quite odd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riz Posted September 6, 2012 Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 Saw the same thing when out over wheat last year. I set the pigeon aside and within seconds it had two wasps over it and biting into it. I've been in the garden before trimming meat for the Bar-B and have seen wasps cut off and fly away with tiny bits of meat. I've also seen a wasp eating a huge bluebottle fly that was still alive and buzzing. Wasps are evidently carniverous and I think on hot days they go for anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riz Posted September 6, 2012 Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 Just found this on t'internet: http://dedomenici.blogspot.co.uk/2006/08/ever-seen-wasp-eat-pigeon.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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