dead gunieas

[Andi44]

Tonight I went to lock up and realized 3 of my guineas were missing..I searched the woods and found 2 piles of feathers (one small and one large) and near the pile I found a body..head missing and it looks like a clean cut. any ideas what it could have been?

(edit to add..this was a daytime attack)

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I would say a racoon or fox

 

[50-45-1]

Fox would take the body.
I say owl

 

[BuckeyeAmy69]

I vote Owl, and they do attack during the day.

 

[NeoHomesteader]

I was just reading about this because of a possible owl in a tree near my flock. There are day and night attack owls. Owls will attack other birds and decapitate them because they only eat the brain as it is high in fat, unlike the smaller animals they ingest whole.

 

[BuckeyeAmy69]

my only thing is I think its a ground predator just because it took 3 within 8 hours all in the same area. only the one body was found the rest was just feathers

An owl will do that. They have young to feed this time of year. They will take as many as they can get.

 

[Andi44]

An owl will do that. They have young to feed this time of year. They will take as many as they can get.

I didnt know that. thank you!

 

[hayley3]

Foxes take the body. Maybe you have two predators. A fox will kill multiple but they can only take one at a time so something else comes along and sees a freshly killed meal and helps themselves.

 

[hayley3]

thats true because the other signs are all fox..it looked like a pillow exploded and no body of the others but this one just the head gone...well now that I know something is learking I can do something to better protect the rest

Exactly! I found piles of feathers but missing birds, which meant fox.
A hawk plucks the feathers and doesn't take the body, but it's weird that guinea looks like it's head was cleanly cut off.
But the main thing is yes you have predators lurking!

 

[Andi44]

I would say a racoon or fox

my first thought was a racoon but I wasn't sure because it got 3 and I thought a fox would take the body?