Effect of Bird Color and Likelihood of Being Attacked

[sylviethecochin]

If it didn't affect predation, wild animals would not all be brown. Brown rabbits. Brown ducks. Brown deer. Brown antelopes. Brown Wildebeests. Brown prairie hens. Domestic animals are the ones that have interesting colours (with the major exceptions of anything that lives on an island, poisonous animals, and Zebras. And male Cardinals. Okay, there are a lot of exceptions.)

What I did notice as a kid was that my father's mallards were always getting picked off, while my Blue Swedish and his Pekins were rarely touched (We had a snapping turtle and possum problem) I did not attribute this to colour. I attributed it to the fact that the predators wouldn't bother going after a large animal when they could get a smaller one that insisted on bedding down further from the barnyard/house area.

 

[Going Quackers]

I am loss city here... and no i haven't found a color to make a darn difference. Size and ability to evade is the #1 thing.

For instance a once HUGE flock of Muscovy of all color ranges? 99% of my females are now gone. I have some males that are BIG and still here years and years later....

 

[Abraeri]

It makes sense about natural colors. Altho rabbits are white for a time so there are all white prey out there

My kahki campbell is way more allert than any of my pekins were. and it made her move more and run more, Most predators eye sight is motion based.
My kahki is like an alarm system

If i had to guess who was going first in an attack it would be big fat dumplings like pekins appleyards cayugas muscovies etc... But not always the case!

Didn't think being more alert would be a danger - but yes my whites are definitely stupider haha, even though they are all the same breed. On the video of the first fatal attack, you can see a white duck calmly waddling right in front of the fox after everyone else had run.

 

[Abraeri]

I haven't lost many to predators but color doesn't seem to be a big factor. Being quick, and a good warning system, as well as nearby cover is more important than color in my opinion. Chickens that are slow and don't look around enough are more at risk.

Right. What I am trying to get at though is if all other variables were constant, i.e., one flock in the same location, same breed, only two different colors, would predators prefer a brown over a white? Or is it just coincidence?

EDIT: I just realized that most breeds do not come in two colors My ducks are pretty much the same breed, Golden 300, but the White Layers were developed just for a white bird. So it's probably a little harder to compare for other animals. So far what I've seen is that if at all, color preference is basically the least important if it is a factor. Hopefully we can get some more data

Way more browns than whites. It's mostly chicks I lose and I think it's because the white ones are more visible.

This is what I would think to; whites are way more visible than browns. On our camera's, the whites stick out like highlighters while you often can't even see the browns. The whites really are how we find them if they are farther away. So when all attacks occurred on browns, I thought that was odd, so maybe the predator (fox) preferred a more natural colored animal.

Maybe the predators in our respective areas have just adapted differently? As far as I know, there aren't any domestic poultry/waterfowl keepers nearby so maybe predators are more wary of a white/unnaturally colored animal?

 

[Abraeri]

If it didn't affect predation, wild animals would not all be brown. Brown rabbits. Brown ducks. Brown deer. Brown antelopes. Brown Wildebeests. Brown prairie hens. Domestic animals are the ones that have interesting colours (with the major exceptions of anything that lives on an island, poisonous animals, and Zebras. And male Cardinals. Okay, there are a lot of exceptions.)

Do you think that since animals in nature are generally this way (camouflaged) that the few minority of animals that are white and very visible would gain an advantage (even if slight) because predators would be unfamiliar and more wary of them?

 

[sylviethecochin]

Do you think that since animals in nature are generally this way (camouflaged) that the few minority of animals that are white and very visible would gain an advantage (even if slight) because predators would be unfamiliar and more wary of them?

I don't know. I think that if that were true, it wouldn't be true for predators in farmland or in towns, which would be used to oddly-coloured animals. I also doubt that it would be true for scent-oriented hunters.

But that is, of course, just a guess.

 

[Raenh]

You can not compare wild animals to domesticated animals breed for all intents and purposes in captivity. Wild animals are more alert and use their colorings to blend into their surroundings and the ones that get caught are usually for lack of better wording, stupider because they weren't aware or didn't sense the danger. Hence survival of the fittest. Predators watch for the weakest, the one that acts lame to protect others, the one that can't sit still and twitches giving away its position. They plan their attacks, just like humans do - they lay and wait for the right moment or perch and determine which way is the best way to swoop in.

Domesticated animals are used to humans protecting them, so some are not as alert as they should be and are not as adapt at blending into their surroundings. The ability to evade and dive for cover is probably the only trait they have left from their wild ancestors. And even that is sometimes taught because of having survived an attack.
And even those that are alert learn to be so from their particular surroundings and how they interact with their humans.

I am deaf, and I pay attention way more then the average person does to my animals for signs of anything. They know when they're out of the pen, I'm home and just inside the glass backdoor. So if they see something, they all run for the door and tilt their heads sideways to the sky. I come running out and yep there's a hawk waaaaaaaaaaay up there. So I sit out with them, they go back to doing ducky things. Or if hawk is close enough for me to see wingtips - I usher them into the pen, which they are afraid to walk to unless I have their backs. They learned that I'm their protector so they don't try to protect themselves - that scares me cause there is absolutely no covering for them on the deck except the picnic table. Which at times they will crowd up under it, if they're scared enough.
Skye sleeps outside with them, most nights and when she doesn't if she hears something, she'll open the glass door herself and go out to check and scare off.

These are just my observations btw...

because I read what most of y'all have written about protecting my flock, I only had one horrible loss because of naivety. I went all out - from guarding them with a rake during prime hawk times until I could afford their pen to sleeping in a tent outside with them to make sure they were secure until I got their new coop.
And let's not forget, speedy and fancy didn't even go outside unless it was to the car with me until they were about 6/7 months old... yes, I am overprotective.

 

[EggWalrus]

In my cases of predation, it's usually the non-wild colored ones that get took out. Even as flighty as white leghorns are, they are pretty stupid when it comes to paying attention to keep from being eaten.
I think a better study would be the correlation between color and stupidity, awareness, and bliss ninny traits.

 

[Folly's place]

I have chickens of several breeds and sizes, and have never lost one of my white Chanteclers to a predator. Hawks take a bird maybe once or twice a year at the most, always one of the immature Belgian d'Uccles, who are not white.
I've lost a couple of birds to one of my dogs, when he got loose, and they were hens who crouched in panic rather than flying away. I saw this happen when running after him!
I think it's more about the skill of the predator involved, and the behavior of the birds, rather than color.
Birds who have little or no flying ability, or Polish with limited eyesight, are at much higher risk, IMO.
Mary

 

[Rose Quartz]

hmmm I went and searched how much color a fox could see

"Nocturnal animals - such as foxes, owls, skunks, and raccoons - whose vision is specialized for dim light seldom have good color vision."

https://www.colormatters.com/64-color-and-vision?start=4

looks like it might just be coincidence that your brown ones were singled out. but then there are animals that get a white winter coat specifically to hide from predators like foxes. It is possible that it is what they're used to in your area. If they don't recognize white as a normal color -or maybe the right word is brightness- of food they don't want to waste their time trying it when they can easily see the correct one there too.