Urban falcons, hawks, and other raptors face multiple welfare challenges including collision with glass, human disturbance at nest sites, and poisoning from rodenticide-contaminated prey.
Urban raptors face welfare challenges specific to the built environment despite the apparently productive conditions. Secondary rodenticide poisoning causes haemorrhage, weakness, and death in raptors consuming poisoned rodents, a route that is entirely preventable by using alternative pest control methods. Window strikes cause traumatic injury and death, particularly in the autumn when young dispersing birds are navigating unfamiliar territories. Disturbance at nest sites during breeding season causes adult birds to abandon eggs or chicks in defensive flight responses, causing chick mortality. The welfare significance of these human-caused harms is heightened by the conservation status of some affected species and the preventability of most causes.