Bothersome heron keeps frightening my chooks! :(

[RoosterWhisperer]

Will a great blue heron hurt my chickens? He keeps terrorizing them by flying and perching in the trees above their coop. At one point we've even used firecrackers to scare him away from the pond, but now he keeps bothering my chickens, will he ever stop?

 

[RoosterWhisperer]

Has anybody had a similar experience with this type of problem?

 

[nuthatched]

He might bother (as in eat) baby chicks but probably not full grown chickens.

 

[RoosterWhisperer]

He might bother (as in eat) baby chicks but probably not full grown chickens.

Thank you, okay!

 

[rosemarythyme]

We have at least 1 regular great blue heron that comes each spring and summer, and as my run is bordered by a creek it strolls right by the chickens. No harassment issues and the chickens ignore him/her. It could possibly be a threat to chicks if it were hungry enough I suppose, but their preference is frogs and fish of course.

 

[GranderTheGander]

They definitely eat tiny ducklings, so I would only be concerned about chicks, since they do hunt on land--rats and mice. It's probably only the pond he is interested in and what's in it, not your chickens. Or he might be interested in what your chickens appear to be eating. Ducks and geese on the river and in the canal here show no fear of them, except mother ducks, of course. The herons are often standing right next to waterfowl on land or in the water at low tide. But any big bird flying overhead can scare them, because they don't immediately know what it is and fear hawks and owls.

 

[Folly's place]

Your birds are behaving correctly, because it could be a hawk or eagle, and they (thankfully!) haven't had bad experiences with either.
We have blue herons, green herons, and sandhill cranes all flying overhead, and of course hawks, vultures, and occasionally an eagle. Our birds alert to all of them, a good thing.
Mary