Daytime predator question

[Folly's place]

Mine gets yummy food daily, and is actually slightly -chubby- . I'd like to think it's not him...
Mary

 

[casportpony]

Mine gets yummy food daily, and is actually slightly -chubby- . I'd like to think it's not him...
Mary

yeah, when this one showed up he was quite thin. Not so thin now, and now he's more interested in the cat food that the poultry, though he does like to sit in the pomegranates and chase the tweety birds.

 

[Birdsong 82]

I highly doubt it was the cat. Sounds to me like the work of a weasel or raccoon. And contrary to popular believe raccoons do come out during the day and they will take your chickens during the day.

 

[janiedoe]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[jolenesdad]

That setup seems perfect for a hawk to just drop down from the branches. I actually rarely see hawks swoop in on a big flight to go after my chickens. Anywhere that they could swoop in on a longer flight, the chickens can get away. As long as they can get moving, it's hard for a hawk to get them and kill them. It's from my trees that a hawk drops down for a surprise attack, directly on top of the birds, and they don't stand a chance.

There are lots of feathers if a raptor completely eats his kill on the spot. There are not a lot of feathers if they just start to dine, and then leave. I just lost a smaller bird this winter that was opened up in this exact same way, and I saw the hawk doing it.

 

[hayley3]

But wouldn't a hawk pull out a bunch of feathers if it had that much time to eat the neck area and then rip open the stomach? When I found my chicken, it was a feathery mess.

Also will a hawk even land in an evergreen tree? I just moved and mine are hanging out under a holly tree and also a spruce tree. I have been watching the dead tree across the street in case the hawk visited, cause I thought they would not fly into branches. But I've NEVER had to deal with hawks before except for the one time above.

And so sorry for the loss of your bird Mary.

 

[jolenesdad]

But wouldn't a hawk pull out a bunch of feathers if it had that much time to eat the neck area and then rip open the stomach? When I found my chicken, it was a feathery mess.

Also will a hawk even land in an evergreen tree? I just moved and mine are hanging out under a holly tree and also a spruce tree. I have been watching the dead tree across the street in case the hawk visited, cause I thought they would not fly into branches. But I've NEVER had to deal with hawks before except for the one time above.

And so sorry for the loss of your bird Mary.

No, they don’t have to pull out that much. I should have taken a photo of my last cockerel, there were maybe three feathers near it. A two inch by three inch section missing over its stomach where it was eating the insides and the kill wound on the neck. Just to start to get into the bird, they don’t need to pull tons of feathers. I had just walked around the corner of the building and this maybe happened in 45 seconds.

I typically see lots of feathers, but I’ve also never come upon a hawk eating a chicken and disrupted it like this instance to see this stage. its obviously not for certain a hawk, but it cannot be ruled out.

I’m by no means an expert, I’ve only lost a total of 7 birds to hawks over the last couple of years.

I don’t know about spruce trees, but I have hawks land in pine trees around me all the time. I’d imagine they could get on the thick bare branches close to the trunk. A smaller hawk could be anywhere in a spruce, and this could easily be a small hawk that ate what it wanted and then left...

 

[hayley3]

My tree is thick with needles...and most of the branches are not like those of an oak tree, they give even when a small bird lands on them. Something to ponder..hopefully the hawks have moved on.

 

[cmom]

Maybe time for a camera and see what's lurking? The killer usually hangs around for an opportunity.

 

[Folly's place]

Her entire neck vertebrae were bare to bone, head to body.
Possibly some critter killed her, and another ate, but the time frame is pretty short, and nothing was spread around.
Of course she was a 'keeper' too!
Mary