Found This In the Backyard This Morning

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BCMaraniac

BCMaraniac

Songster
8 Years
Mar 27, 2013
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I found this mostly eaten bird in my backyard. The backbone and pelvis were intact, but all of the flesh was gone as was the head. It has very long talons. I appears to be a medium sized bird, and I suspect it is a Cooper's Hawk. Any thoughts? It has very long talons.



My chickens free range back here, and I have two roosters with them. I also have a Great Pyrenees who looks after my chickens. I don't know what ate on it, but am wondering if it might have been the chickens or mice, since the feather were relatively intact. The tail feathers were behind the rest of the carcass a few feet, but were intact. Do you think my rooster might have killed it? None of my birds show any sign of trauma.
 
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It appears to be a hawk. It is likely that the chickens ate it, except I would think they would have left the head. It seems unlikely that a rooster could have killed a hawk, especially if the rooster is not injured.

Interesting to find that in the yard.

Chris
 
chfite said:
It appears to be a hawk. It is likely that the chickens ate it, except I would think they would have left the head. It seems unlikely that a rooster could have killed a hawk, especially if the rooster is not injured.

Interesting to find that in the yard.

Chris
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I called the game warden and left a message. We actually have one in the county in which I live., I spoke with aa sporting goods store where people go to check their deer kills, etc, and they said to call the game warden so that he could come retrieve the carcass in the event that there could have been some disease that killed it. It is my understanding that there was an incidence here 3-4 months ago of Salmonella infection discovered in a bald eagle. I saw one of them fly over my house a couple of weeks ago.
 
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That's pretty wild that you just found it like that. Yep, makes you wonder what killed it. Your dog might have got it. I have the same kind of hawks here. If one gets killed shortly another moves in.
 
lazy gardener said:
Where are you? What are your temps like? Is it possible that insects devoured it? Otherwise, I'd guess an other raptor, perhaps a rat ate it after it was already dead.
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No ants here, since we were at -9 3 days ago, and -13 the week before that. I am wondering if my Great Pyrenees might have grabbed it when it came down after a chicken or one of the cats. He barks and runs after hawks and crows that fly over. enforcing a NO FLY zone, and I don't think he would have eaten it. We have never seen a rat, but do have mice and moles. If a rat had been involved, then I would have thought the bony structures would have been more disturbed, I did see a bald eagle fly over my house a few weeks ago, so I supposed another raptor is possible
 
The game warden said he didn't need to come out, that there had not been any reports of dead hawks to indicate disease, but that he would call it in just in case this was the first case of something. He said based on the description I gave him that it was probably a Cooper's hawk, and that they are very common here. I am quite sure there will be another one to take its place. He told me to just to dispose of it. The wild part of it is that it's illegal to keep the feathers.....but I understand why.

As far as a picture of its, there really isn't much there.
 
I would say its either a Cooper`s or Sharp-shinned Hawk,they are very similar. Another hawk or Great-horned owl could have killed it.
 

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