Hawks and owls prey on pheasants more than most people think. Back in Highschool I used to own and run a pheasant farm. I had 8 flight conditioning nets and about 8K birds yearly. Birds of Prey have incredible timing on catching a pheasant. I remember seeing quite a few occasions of a pheasant flying near the net at full speed and an owl or hawk reach through the net and catch them, during flight. They'd break their necks usually in seconds, and eventually pull their heads off, since the body wouldn't fit through the net. I would find lots of headless birds in the pen, each year, and usually a 1/2 dozen hawks & owls who got their feet caught in the net themselves. I understand that it's a isolated captive environment, but these pheasants were still protected a whole lot better than any bird in the wild.
Even in the wild, I've seen 2 different occasions of hawks carrying wild pheasants away. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that IMO, there is a bigger link between birds of prey and upland bird decline than a lot of reports I read say. I agree that the loss of habitat is normally the biggest reason for an upland bird decline, but believe the increase of birds of prey have had a noticeable effect.
