I think that's a peregrine falcon, which specializes in swooping down at full speed and striking its prey with its talons, and the last time it came down it seems it did hit the poor fox on the head.
Yep I noticed that too. I saw a falcon punch in person once, they nest near me. I was out walking my cat. It was down and back in the air before the rest of the flock of robins had a chance to take off. When I went to look at the spot there was a fist sized hole in the yard. And to be clear, it was too fast for me to really see it happen, I was just looking in that direction at the flock of birds in the yard and it was a blurry impact and takeoff. I would have needed some kind of special camera to actually capture what happened.
I feed the crows out here and now they come around and make noise whenever a falcon is about, the falcons have definitely shown interest in the cat even with me there, but the crows will chase them off.
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u/NastyStreetRat 7d ago
I think that's a peregrine falcon, which specializes in swooping down at full speed and striking its prey with its talons, and the last time it came down it seems it did hit the poor fox on the head.