Do hawks kill but leave chicken bodies uneaten?

Hawk generally not abandoning carcass, rather eating what they can then setting in tree usually not too far away until ready to eat again. Such hawk will come back to defend carcass from another hawk or crows. A couple years ago I left hawk kills out to see what was going on. More than one hawk would visit so they pilfer each others killss pretty regular and even owls get in on act.

 

i've had red tailed hawks just eat the head/neck........ leave the rest.... come back next day, kill another, eat head/neck...... sounds like you have several predators eye balling your flock........ do what you've gotta do to protect them.... the predators will be back until they can't get fed!!!!

 

I believe red tailed hawks can be rather opportunistic. I've seen them feeding on deer carcasses before. To echo what Darin367 said, it seems like you have a predator problem involving more than hawks.
Best of luck to you.

 

signs of hawk: lots of "string" attached to the bones, bones are mostly intact.. areas are plucked clean/almost clean of feathers. nearly perfect feather 'halo' around the carcass or if hawk moved carcass you can find a halo somewhere else in yard. one other sign is the eaten carcass is under a branch, in the open. I assume hawk took prey to branch and let go when it was done...

from what I read around here, it seems taking only the head and neck whole and leaving body intact are owls? none of the hawks that preyed on my birds(saw them and chased off) removed the head or neck of juvenile birds- they did rip apart limbs from young chicks.

 

grisly

 

Hi i wanted to say it seems like from what you said that it is either a hawk, or Owl. I had an owl kill one of my big sucks and eat the head and breast out of it. then come back the next night. It did this for 3 nights.

 

We lost a four month old rooster yesterday.all we found was a halo of plucked feathers in a field.no carcass.does hawks carry prey away to a nest? We r wondering what got him.