Daylight owl?

[dubber]

Our chickens have the run or our 60 or so mixed fruit tree orchard and today at about 3:00 P.M. or so something got one. I found it at 4:00 and it was still partly warm. The chickens don't roost until around 7:00, and we're in N. Central Oregon. The chicken had been opened up and some entrails pulled out but the main damage was to head and neck. The head was severed but not missing. The entire neck was eaten to the bone, but not severed nor was there any sign of tooth or bite marks. We do have both red-tailed hawks and owls here, so I think probably one or the other. Any ideas? This was a full grown Barred Rock hen, 1/4 of our total flock of 4! We don't keep a roosted with them, too noisy but haven't had problems with raptors before. Anyway, experienced thoughts welcome!

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Definitely not a day owl, either hawk, or ground predator.

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Probably a hawk.

 

[Isaac 0]

I've had owls take some of my ducks during the day time.I know Barred owls are a little bit more active during the day than other owls.Keep a eye out though because whatever it is its probably going to be back.

 

[dubber]

The next day I happened to see a red-tailed hawk circling the orchard. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. He obviously could see me too and moved away and I haven't noticed him again, but figure he'll probably be back.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

A barred owl roosted in our yard for two nights, and about 10:30 am I saw him take a red squirrel. This was a few weeks ago; we had had deep snow cover for a long time. We figured he was pretty hungry, but maybe it’s like @MasterOfClucker said, something they do.

 

[dubber]

Well, according the the USDA we have the following owls in Central Oregon. Barn Owl | Barred Owl | Boreal Owl | Burrowing Owl | Flammulated Owl | Great Gray Owl | Great Horned Owl | Long-eared Owl | Northern Pygmy-Owl | Northern Saw-whet Owl | Short-eared Owl | Spotted Owl | Western Screech-Owl. I don't know if any of them are more prone to daylight hunting than others, and I can't say as I've seen a barrel owl around here, but I have seen barn owls and great horned owls. Only thing I know for sure is I have one less hen.

 

[centrarchid]

Not enough info to make a good guess other than to rule out canids that pack chickens off. Procedure I have adopted is to leave a carcass in place and stake it down. Then train a game camera on it from several feet away to record who visits. Perp is likely to at least be among those that inspect carcass. Perp focusing on carcass buys you time to improve your setup for keeping predators off the chickens when trying to make future kills.

 

[dubber]

That's a good idea but I don't have another place for the remaining 3 hens and I didn't want them pecking at the remains so I got rid of the dead one. Our orchard is pretty much coyote proof, but a raccoon or skunk could probably climb the fence or a tree that's close to it. Like I said though, the neck was eaten to the bone, but except for the severed head, no obvious bite marks. Hawk or owl seems most likely to me, even though we've had chickens for several years and we've never lost one like this before.

 

[centrarchid]

Then put all effort into protecting birds and ignore what the critter may be.