I have my thoughts on who the culprit was but wanted to hear other thoughts on it. No blood or guts and no foot prints, just feathers left behind.
I believe it's a very young cat bird or mocking bird by the grey color ( they look more black in the pic than they are) just took this pic to show the size.
@WithLisa it looks as they were pulled off, it's hard to see in the pic but there are only 2 feathers attacked by a little piece of skin, all the rest are complete feathers.
I'm thinking smaller, I had a Red-Tail years ago and it would have eaten something this small in one gulp without removing the feathers. Also I'm not sure it was eaten here, it may have been food for some youngsters.
Yes I believe it's a Kestrel, I just realized this may solve another mystery. I have been seeing this on a daily bases,
The nest is up here somewhere, I can't see it.
Back in 1999 or 2000 I was doing a job in Reston Va.where we had to remove the insulation from a pipe rack crossing above a road. In the process a fuzzy little white bird fell out, And me being me I took it home not knowing what type of bird it was, raised it up and it turned into a Kestrel, And I learned a young Kestrel in the nest can poop about 12 feet out to keep the nest area clean. It was entertaining to raise it into a young adult but I didn't keep it I gave it to a guy that was licensed to keep birds of prey.
If this was the UK, I would say a sparrowhawk. A pile of feathers from plucking is all they leave behind. I have no idea if you get them where you are
