I was sitting in the living room surrounded by my project with Blake on his windowsill. He began shrieking and freaking, which alerted me to the noise of a murder of crows outside. I went to the window and looked out: In a tree across the street I saw three crows and a dangling...pigeon, which resolved into not only a pigeon but also its fate. RDC is not sure if the pigeon is dead yet in the left shot. I think it is, because at least a minute but probably more time has elapsed since impact, enough for the crows to crowd in, and raptors kill with their feet. Possibly it would have fed in the tree if it could have mantled enough, and not just by overbalancing with one wing, to protect its meal from greedy crows; possibly the entire pigeon was too heavy conveniently to carry away. It flew off with the remainder of its prize after tearing out and gulping down what looked like most of the breast meat and gizzards.
I wish I had seen the stoop and the kill, because raptors are the amazing animals, but through binoculars from my porch I got to watch the sharp-shinned hawk feed on pigeon sashimi. I think it was female, because it was on the larger side of the 12"-14" range for its species. (About the species, at least, I am certain.) And RDC used his birthday present, not from the porch but with lots of zoom.