Raptors VS. Racing Pigeons Documentary (2023 Finalists)

This is a "wildlife documentary" presenting the falcon and hawk attacks on my racing pigeons flock during the winter. Please select 4K quality. While most of the racing pigeons are kept in the lofts during winter and get "preventive" medication, I tried the opposite with these experimental birds: winter flying and no medication. Watch the finest products of natural selection. I present only the best finalist pigeons that I don't fly at the club, but keep them as free range breeding pigeons and as a base for next winter's team.

00:00 - Raptors VS. Racing Pigeons (winter season 2022-2023)
01:07 - Falcon attacking at roof level to make the pigeons go up; see how it slowly drives them up in the sky after the initial attack.
06:39 - As always, the falcon goes after the pigeon that changes direction less than the others and stays on the falcon's acceleration path.
11:14 - The falcon pair communicating; after this discussion, the female left and the male started to hunt, and got two pigeons that day.
14:09 - The pigeons separated in 2 groups and the falcon attacks both of them and is not getting tired. The pigeons were able to reunite but soon after that the falcon attacks them again.
17:38 - "Falcon race arrivals" - After about 2 hours of being chased by the falcon up in the sky, the pigeons start to return to the loft, the weak ones first, one by one. These moments are full of adrenaline because the hawk waits for them to come to the loft and attacks when they almost got home. While it chases one, several others are able to enter the loft. Some of them go back up at the falcon level to reunite with the flock.
20:33 - Finally they almost got to the loft... but the hawk attacks them from above dropping like a stone.
21:09 - The old 2017 female "Coronita" saves the flock again by going far away with the falcon chasing her. After fooling the falcon, she comes back with extreme speed and you can hear the sound of fast feathers.
21:42 - Arriving home after another busy day with 2+ hours fast flying session with multiple falcon and hawk attacks. Now meet the finalists, the best fliers.
22:53 - 916-2016-M "The Veteran". Ambassador's oldest son from the winter team. He has been facing raptor attacks since 2016 when he was a young late bred. 7 years experience with probably thousands of attacks seen, some of them being on himself as a falcon chase. He's the Captain of the flock.
23:30 - 718-2017-F "Coronita". Grand-granddaughter of Ambassador.
23:48 - 3122018-F "Randunica". Daughter of The Veteran, she is the smallest bird from the flock, extremely agile and light, it's very hard to catch her even inside the loft. The ideal phenotype for mountain areas, I would say.
24:12 - 513-2019-F "Florida". More of a middle distance phenotype, not really my style but she is from two very good racers. Not very tame, might be her last year as a stock bird. Agitated bird, this is the reason she got wounded by the falcon as you can see, even if she is a mature bird, with so many youngsters in the flock.
24:43 - 511-2019-M "Starlingsson" - A very beautiful male, great phenotype but agitated and not a good breeder. Giving another try this year with two youngsters from him.
25:02 - 311-2020-F - Daughter of Ambassador
25:10 - 317-2020-F - Granddaughter of Ambassador
25:23 - 297-2020-M - Grandson of Ambassador. His father was #1 club Marathon
25:33 - 532-2021-M - "Laser" - A younger son of Ambassador
25:47 - 552-2021-M - Grandson of "Coronita"
26:01 - 031-2021-F - Daughter of "Coronita" and "Starlingsson"
26:18 - 039-2021-F - Daughter of Ambassador
26:27 - 040-2021-F - Daughter of Ambassador (nest sister of the previous)
26:40 - 543-2021-F - Daughter of "The Veteran" and "Florida"
26:51 - 110-2022-M - The last son of Ambassador
+ Several other new entries in the team.
29:20 - "Baby November". This was an experiment I did, I hatched some very late youngsters but since there were too many attacks I kept them in the loft for the winter. Except this one which was very wild and I don't like this kind of bird. I let her fly out and her first flight was on November 1st, when there were already serious hawks and falcon attacks. She was lucky enough that when she trained her wings for the first two days no hawk was around. On the 3rd day she was already flying with the flock managing to stay in the flock even in fast direction changes (which is very hard for a young bird just learning to fly). When the hawk attacked, separated her from the flock and did a very close chase but she managed to escape. A few days later the flock went very high in the sky with the falcon and she got separated again and she again managed to escape. From that day on, she got no more individual attacks and integrated perfectly in the flock like a mature bird although she was 1 month or more younger than all the other pigeons. I didn't keep her for stock and she is in the club team now.