He will wait until my hands are full and then dart out the door. The most common time is when I'm bringing in the groceries.

He has a collar with a bell on it that makes a jingle every time he moves. His tags also clang together so he's noisy every time he takes a step. Most birds get the hint and know he's on the move. As far as I know he's yet to get anywhere near a bird. Insects, otoh-he's a stone cold killer.

my cat makes a game of it and is successful quite often

I keep a collar & bell on him during my waking hours

keeps perfect view of the door. He's fat but he can jump from the couch and out the door very fast. He's not dumb either and knows to wait until I'm bringing in bags to make his move.

my laptop bag strap gets caught on the door handle for one second and he is GONE!!!

ia) indoor/outdoor cats had a life expectancy of about a year. Lots of coyotes

So I don't let my cats be indoor/outdoor.

I do walk him on a leash sometimes and he likes it, when he's in the mood.

I had once a deaf cat that only hunted birds, and I imagine that a Birdsbesafe cat collar would have stopped him from getting them so often.

for her own safety; outdoor cats don't last long around here. Between the coyotes and the owls, they just don't. I like the great horned owl that nests in the big tree right outside my bedroom, but I don't want to feed it my cat.

My current cat sits in windows and watches them, twitching and "acking" intently, and I know she'd like to at least try. She'll never get the chance, being stuck inside unless I put a harness on her and take her out; and then, I'm out there with her.

In the summer, to cool the house down overnight, I leave the doors open (screen doors shut.) Every morning while the sun is still low in the eastern sky, my cat sits at the open door facing west. A pair of scrub jays, nesting nearby, visit her there. On purpose. They land on the screen and squawk at her. She leaps at them, and hangs off the screen from the inside. They happily scold her, jump around and perch just above her nose...and peck at her paws as she works to unhook her claws from the screen. She jumps down, and the whole cycle begins again, until the air is warm enough that I shut the door.

If I put a collar like that on her I'd be risking my own skin, and she'd have it off in no time.

the ground.

When I moved here, there was a colony of feral cats in the barn. I trapped, spayed/neutered and released them all over the course of a summer.

By the next summer, since they weren't replacing the population, they were all gone. I don't think the hawks were involved, and the eagles aren't here very often, but I've seen that owl in action.

It took down one of my chickens who came out of her roost one dawn and followed me to the barn. That chicken was less than 2 feet away, and BAM. In an instant she was hit and gone. The owl came in right over my shoulder.

I'm sure most of the cat killing was done by the coyotes, but a great-horned owl is nothing to be messed with.

I'm sure she'd take on those scrub jays, at least, if she could get one alone. They tag team, and while she enjoys the "through the screen door" game, I don't think she'd like the dive bombing by one while the other played prey.

Happily, she gets her chance to be a predator. She keeps the mice out of the house, and proudly presents me with any offenders who thought they could come on in and get comfortable. As far as I'm concerned, she can take every rodent she can get her claws into.

The owl, stooping from the air, has a huge advantage. If it get caught on the ground, though, the tables would likely be turned.

often kill stuff in excess of double their weight. Won't link it but there's a youtube video of a lone tiger (400 pounds?) killing a wild gaur (asian cattle - 2,000 pounds?) Have no doubt a house cat's claws and teeth are strong enough to maul an owl.

Cat pounces on owl = dead or fleeing owl.
Owl pounces on cat = dead or fleeing cat

"Fair fight" where they meet each other face to face? They probably posture and back off from each other. If they actually fight, IDK. While cats are very strong pound for pound with big natural weapons, so are raptors. But in nature fair fights are rare.

Face-to-face is only going to happen on the ground, and I suspect the owl, knowing it's out of its element, would do its best to flee. It's at a pretty big disadvantage if it comes to a fight on the ground. But I agree: the most likely result is that each would posture a bit, then back off. Evolution favors caution on the part of solitary hunters (that is, even if they win a fight, if they get significantly injured in the process, their hunting ability is impaired and they might well starve).

in that bottom photo.