Hawks, falcons and eagles on my property

[ABIRASZOFUZY]

So I have a very large female muscovy duck and two hens. My duck enjoys splashing in the pond I built her and the chickens like wandering the paddock with the duck. There is a problem though. I live in Charters Towers in Northern Queensland in Australia. This town is a desert town so it’s very flat and open country land. It’s also only an hour and a half from townsville which is city and beach. On my property there is a few peregrine falcons, eagles, kites and various types of hawks. I know my chickens could easily be picked up or just eaten in general but I’m wondering if my duck could be picked up or if she could fight back against most of the predatory birds.

 

[sourland]

The sad reality is that even if they could not fly off with her they could kill her. Most raptors kill with the impact of the strike and then eat where they have killed. Is it possible to contain your birds and allow monitored free ranging ?

 

[3chickenman3]

An eagle could kill a Muscovy duck but smaller raptors will leave them alone

 

[hayley3]

I watched a video of a hawk attacking a Canadian goose...so they definitely would attack a duck.

 

[3chickenman3]

I am not saying it could never happen but a red tailed hawk only weighs 3 lbs and it is a huge risk to be tackling prey that size unless very desperate they will not attack even if they do there is a large chance it will be unsuccessful

 

[hayley3]

Hawks kill with their talons and the impact of those talons as they tackle their prey. There are videos all over the internet of hawks killing ducks.

 

[Khaki mama]

I would recommend watching your Muscovy's while their out. Plus you can clean their coop while you watch them.

 

[Khaki mama]

I would recommend watching your Muscovy's while their out. Plus you can clean their coop while you watch them.

 

[ABIRASZOFUZY]

The sad reality is that even if they could not fly off with her they could kill her. Most raptors kill with the impact of the strike and then eat where they have killed. Is it possible to contain your birds and allow monitored free ranging ?

I was intending on making a smaller run for them and putting mesh over the top for when I’m not working outside because they still need to be out but I’ll have to wait until I get payed to do so

 

[ABIRASZOFUZY]

I watched a video of a hawk attacking a Canadian goose...so they definitely would attack a duck.

Yeah at my old property in NSW we have over 100 chickens and ducks and while protecting my birds the hawks would even try and fight me but they were scared of my rake so it was fine