How can I tell a hawk in the sky?

[Emojikitten]

Sorry for the bad english. I apparently don't know how to human today.

So tomorrow I plan to make my chickens some egg-free pancakes and let them free-range all by themselves. That means I won't be out there. The problem is that there's a lot of big birds flying around my neighborhood and I can't tell if they're hawks or birds that could harm my chickens or big birds that are just flying by. What is a fool-proof way I can tell a bad bird from a good bird? And do ya'll know any ways I can keep bad birds away from my yards other than using a scarecrow or putting my dogs outside?

 

[Fishkeeper]

Scarecrows won't work on hawks. Dogs might.

Vultures, which should largely be considered harmless, are largely black or dark grey. They have naked heads, and a hunched posture when perching. They're very slow and usually circle or glide. The feathers at the ends of their wings are spread apart, and look a bit like fingers.

Hawks come in a variety of colors, but are generally brown or tan. Some might have reddish areas on their body. They fly a bit faster than vultures, have feathers on their heads, and sit up straight when perching. They don't flap much most of the time, and are very big birds, gliding slowly. They usually have barring, flecks, or other patterns. The feathers at the ends of their wings are closer together than on vultures.

Eagles look like hawks, but bigger, with less patterning.

Falcons have wings shaped a bit like a boomerang, are smaller, and fly much faster. They have long tails and are generally tan and white. They probably aren't a threat to adult chickens.

Crows and ravens are pretty distinctive black birds, who flap a lot more than birds of prey. They may hassle chickens if allowed to do so, corvids are known to mess with other animals for fun, but aren't generally dangerous unless you have baby chicks. In fact, if you encourage some corvids to hang around, they'll chase away hawks.

I'd suggest looking up "birds of prey [your area here]", or something of the sort, to learn what large birds you have in the area. That way you can learn what your potential predators look like. You can also look up "hawk vs vulture" to see some picture comparisons.

 

[Emojikitten]

Thank you so much!

 

[Pork Pie]

Your chickens will tell you when there is a hawk around by their behaviour (all of them staring at the source of concern) and making a kinda throaty growl (for want of a better term).

 

[Ribh]

Learn to identify the silhouettes.
This might help:
http://www.hawkmountain.org/raptorpedia/how-to-identify-hawks/page.aspx?id=353

 

[Kris5902]

Going to have to object on the crows
And ravens being generally less dangerous, if it will kill a lamb 5-10kg... going to say they can and will harm a chicken. Especially given greater numbers.

Also... our vultures are more likely to kill than eagles, but that could be a local thing

 

[Fishkeeper]

Lambs are pretty helpless. They can't do much about corvids. Chickens run and flap and squawk, they're a lot of effort to get at. Either way, corvids predating on things their size or larger is fairly rare, it's too much effort. If you see an entire mob of them watching your chickens, you might have cause for concern, but one flying overhead is no problem.

Vultures are scavengers, unless driven to be otherwise. In areas with a lot of farming, where all the dead animals are farm animals that are quickly disposed of, they don't have enough food and will resort to attacking live prey. They really aren't made for it, though- their beak and claws are weak. Black vultures in particular are the ones that more easily turn predator, and are known to kill weakened small animals, but unless they're especially hungry they won't go after a healthy chicken. They're smallish vultures with black feathers and greyish-black heads, and are often seen in groups. Turkey vultures are usually solitary unless gathered around a kill, are larger and have a hint of brown coloration, and have pink heads, and they're a lot less aggressive in all circumstances.

Chickens aren't 100% effective hawk-spotting alarms. Sometimes they don't see the hawk, or it's too high up, or they start alarming about something that's not a hawk. Their reactions can be useful, though.

 

[centrarchid]

This is a situation where the poster's location is very important. I know birds pretty good, but dare not advise someone on appearance of birds occurring in a location I am not familiar with. Location helps with doing an internet search of images or finding an identification key for a given area. Even an ET living on earth should know that location is important with respect to species distributions. Otherwise interstellar travel VISA needs to be revoked.

 

[WthrLady]

Our chickens will ignore turkey vultures as we have a large nesting population here, but run and hide from helicopters.

 

[MissChick@dee]

I have learned to watch all the birds actually I love doing it. You’ll learn by watching. Get some binoculars and take your cell phone to look them up. I have a call for hawks...my girls know what it means. They will alarm to a predator but if you don’t know what to listen for it won’t matter. They are very subtle in the way they alarm and each bird is different. I’m the only one who looses it and screams. The more time you spend with them the more you’ll learn. I’m hoping you have shelters throughout your yard for raptors. If not perhaps create some.
Best wishes