Live Trap

[Gallo del Cielo]

Hi Bosque, I think a coyote would have carried at least one of the birds away as it escaped. I saw one walking down the road in front of my house with my neighbor's chicken in its mouth, that was about 5 am, just as the sun was coming up. They can jump pretty high. Apparently, my 6' high wall is not high enough to keep them out. Were you able to look carefully at the birds? What kind of damage did they have? That can tell you a lot. I'm very curious about what happened since we're likely to have similar predators.

 

[SFIcelandics]

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My Fence is 4' High, and I know it is not coons, cause I can catch them a few a night if I tried. I believe the coyotes are jumping the fence getting the birds... There are usually feathers everywhere, it only happens at night, and we have heard the coyotes... Its not an owl because the whole bird goes missing...

Nate

 

[Bosque]

Gallo del Cielo,

When I got to my pheasant pen, I only saw the female who had blood coming from her mouth. The male was not in the pen. When I turned around, I saw the male in the yard upside down, the feathers from his chest had been ripped off. There was moisture on his feathers, but no real puncture wounds. Looking closer, I thought that his neck had been broken, but he was still able to move. I turned my attention back to the female who had more blood coming from her mouth. She had very small indentations on her head. The top portion of her left wing had been ripped off, but other than that, no apparent trama. As soon as I picked her up, she gergled more blood, then passed. It was then that I noted the hole in the pen. The PVC poultry netting had been pulled apart. No real teeth marks, just stretched plastic. The hole was about 6"x7". I live in a neighborhood with a 6 foot redwood fence. I walked the entire length of the fence and did not see any attempt to dig under. Looking at the top of the fence, i did not see any claw marks in the wood. We have decomposed granite for landscape, so no tracks.

As you can see, the external damage to the birds was minimal, but internal was mortal. That is why I cant figure out what got into my back yard.



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[Gallo del Cielo]

Hi Bosque, sorry you had to think about that moment again, but it seems telling. It almost certainly is not a raccoon or opossum (they typically rip heads off first and their attacks seem bloodier than you describe), or coyote (they would carry it away) or large bird (e.g. owl or hawk, probably would not leave saliva all over the pheasant and it would have taken only one). So, maybe Bobcat? That's one I don't know a lot about when it comes to their killing pattern of birds, but it seems possible. What it sounds like most to me is dog and the type of damage you describe is often what you find after a dog attack. The wet feathers without a whole lot of carnage is what you see with a dog that doesn't really have the killer instinct, but thinks they are great fun toys to play with. It sounds just like what the doves look like after my dog captures them in the chicken run.