Mountain Racing Pigeons VS. Birds of Prey - Sky Thriller

Here are some selections from many hours of filming falcon and hawk attacks on my racing pigeons in October, November and December. As usual, please set the video quality to 4K.

00:00 - Mountain Racing Pigeons VS. Birds of Prey - Sky Thriller

01:33 - Not being able to keep a tight flock. The result of having a big flock with a majority of very young inexperienced birds, some of them being from new strains from low predation areas; also feeding heavy.

02:34 - Falcon's "marathon" - see how long falcon chases can be; sometimes, especially high in the sky, it keeps chasing a pigeon for minutes if the pigeon resists; the falcon's goal is to make the pigeon give up and dive to the ground so the falcon has big chances of catching it. In a straight line they have the sam speed but every time the pigeon changes direction the falcon gets closer. I had pigeons that kept going like this with the falcon so far away that they returned the next day.

04:25 - This was the daughter of "Coronitza" that you might have seen in an older video doing similar tricks when being chased by the falcon.

06:29 - This was a foggy day. After failing several times, the falcon pretended to leave and let the pigeons calm down a bit, then it did an explosive sprint from the fog and was successful.

07:17 - I don't know if you realize how far high in the sky these scenes were filmed but I always wanted to show (and see for myself) what happens up there, the intense competition between the falcon and the pigeons; without a camera zoom, with my eyes sometimes all the 80 pigeons flock looks like a dot. I avoid zooming out because I risk losing them from the camera viewfinder and ruin all the scene. Sorry for the shaky images but I don't use a tripod (not convinced it would be possible to use it for this).

08:07 - Thanks to the weather and distance of the flock, I was able to film a longer scene that shows the strategy of both the flock and the falcon, and the repeated falcon attacks hoping to break their defence, shooting like a bullet through the flock.

09:54 - "So you guys turn left, you turn right, and once the falcon is distracted the whole flock can safely change direction".

14:00 - Biggest mistake of some pigeons after they escape the falcon: dropping in a tree. If there is a hawk around and sees that, it attacks instantly and the hawks are much better between tree branches than pigeons. I lost several pigeons this way.

Intro: Countdown Tension Trailer by Soundridemusic
https://youtu.be/UJMpdQUYGao

Soundtrack: Two Steps From Hell - Archangel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ-QLl5qjLg

Outro: Mădălina Pavăl - Du-mă, vântule! ???? România Sălbatică
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV-uS4bOkM0

Mădălina’s Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@MadalinaPavalOfficial

This is part of the soundtrack for a stunning documentary about wildlife in Romania:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roRBhb3gVXM