Has anyone had a bald eagle attack or kill their ducks?

This is the second time I have ever seen a bald eagle in my life, but the first time by my home. I was parking my car when an eagle flew around 20-40 ft above the ground over my duck pen which is along side of where I was parking. It was amazing, don't get me wrong, but then I got to thinking could it have been thinking to kill one of my daughter's ducks. It just kept flying until I could no longer see it.

Has anyone had this happen? If so, was it a repeat offender? Does it eat more than one each visit? I hope this is not in the making...

Thanks so much!

Learningstill said:

This is the second time I have ever seen a bald eagle in my life, but the first time by my home. I was parking my car when an eagle flew around 20-40 ft above the ground over my duck pen which is along side of where I was parking. It was amazing, don't get me wrong, but then I got to thinking could it have been thinking to kill one of my daughter's ducks. It just kept flying until I could no longer see it.

Has anyone had this happen? If so, was it a repeat offender? Does it eat more than one each visit? I hope this is not in the making...

Thanks so much!

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It may have been scoping out your area, someone lost a beautiful blue Muscovy duck at the river down from our house I tried numerous times to get her to trust me but she was too scared, then one day my dh comes home and says there is an Eagle flying along the river at the area this duck had been hanging out, we jump into the truck and the eagle is sitting in a tree right above where the duck is usually at along the river. very steep terrain there and I was so worried this eagle was after the Muscovy, well next day she is gone. I really believe the eagle took her. I don't think they would take more than one duck a day. I hope your Eagle doesn't come back, only thing that keeps them from coming to our property is we have alot of trees it couldn't fly through them.

I have had hawks attack my chickens before. The hawks was almost the same size as the chickens. Never have seen any going for my ducks... Ducks are bigger than chickens though.

Crazy4Fowl said:

I have had hawks attack my chickens before. The hawks was almost the same size as the chickens. Never have seen any going for my ducks... Ducks are bigger than chickens though.

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We have about 3 different size hawks here the largest being the Red Tail and the one that got my bantam hen was huge, The one they call the sparrow hawk has had an encounter with my game rooster at least 3X that I know of. He's a fiesty lil dude.The rooster and the hawk.

Hopefully the eagle did not see the ducks. It is below zero here, so the ducks were laying under a house and tree silently and curled into little balls. Hopefully it did not spot any and moves on to another area. We have had a hawk problem with our chickens, but thankfully they left our ducks alone. I just hope this eagle is not out for our ducks.

Learningstill said:

Hopefully the eagle did not see the ducks. It is below zero here, so the ducks were laying under a house and tree silently and curled into little balls. Hopefully it did not spot any and moves on to another area. We have had a hawk problem with our chickens, but thankfully they left our ducks alone. I just hope this eagle is not out for our ducks.

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Hopefully not!

Warning long post.

I hope it is OK to piggy back on this thread.

I just lost my first and favorite Muscovy drake to an eagle. Darn it. I love to see the eagles.

I sold the flock of Dutch Hookbills due to Eagle predation then last year started with Muscovy. Last year I didn't lose even one. I thought they were not going to be bothered by the eagles. Last week an eagle took by beloved drake Huffington.

I can pen them for a few days but I'm sure this eagle is a permanent resident so it will probably be back. The reason I started with ducks is their awesome ability to reduce the fly issues with my cattle and horses. Now of course I adore just having them. They won't do much for the flies penned. I can't cover my entire pasture.

Does anyone have any tips on making my ducks less enticing to the eagles?

I read another post in the predator forum that thought a livestock guardian dog would be about the only solution. I'm not confident I would be able to pick out and train an LGD to protect the ducks, and it wouldn't be ready to protect the ducks for quite some time. Also I would need to securely fence 7 acres (and my driveway) to safely keep an outside dog. I'm pretty sure the underground pet fence wouldn't work for a LGD

I could fence in a donkey but how would I train it to stay with the ducks - seems impossible.

I may be able to put shelters out in the fields. Does anyone know how to make these and how many I'd need. My guess is they got Huffington because he was out protecting his hens and he was kind of slow.

Any suggestions most welcome!!!!!

Very sad to read of your loss. I hope folks here have some ideas. We have Runners, and hawks will go after them - and a much smaller place, so their day pen is covered.