Het menu van Oehoe Bubo bubo en Havik Accipter gentilis nader beschouwd

Donkers H. 2024. A closer look at diets of Eagle Owl Bubo bubo and Goshawk Accipiter gentilis. De Takkeling 32: 125-136. In a study area in western Noord-Brabant, Goshawk territories and nests were located and prey remains collected. One of these territories had been occupied in 2016-21, producing fledglings except in 2021. It was vacated in 2022, but in 2023 the nest was found to be in use by Eagle Owls, a first for the region (with two more pairs located elsewhere in western Noord-Brabant in the same year). Prey remains and pellets were systematically collected in April-October near the Eagle Owl nest in 2023, and Bubo diet was compared to that of Goshawks in the same region (in th summers of 2012-21). Eagle Owls were found to prey mostly on Rabbit, Hedgehog (15% in numbers, 45% of all mammalian prey), Woodpigeon and Carrion Crow (together 61% of prey biomass), augmented with a substantial scattering of waders, ducks, Jackdaw, Hare and Brown Rat. The high diversity of prey reflects the local landscape, where coniferous and mixed forests are alternated with farmland, heaths and water. Among Goshawk prey, pigeons were by far the dominant species (56%, mostly Racing Pigeons, which is not surprising given the large number of pigeon fanciers in this region including nearby Belgium). Rabbits constituted a minor part of the Goshawk diet (2 out of 134). A decline in birds weighing 75-500 g (including Racing Pigeons), and the colonization of the region by Eagle Owls, are likely to impact Goshawk numbers in the near future.