A Connecticut man has pleaded guilty to capturing and killing federally protected hawks.

Connecticut U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly says Adam Boguski pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Hartford to charges including two counts of taking, capturing and killing Cooper’s hawks.

Prosecutors say the 43-year-old Boguski and another man are pigeon-racing enthusiasts who killed the predatory hawks because they saw them as threats to their pigeons. The men maintained a pigeon coop in Stamford.

Prosecutors say the men captured the hawks in a trap designed to capture birds of prey and then shot and killed them in it.

Cooper’s hawks are protected under federal law.

Boguski is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 11. He faces a maximum of 18 months in prison.


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