Nothing left but a beak?

[redkan]

What would do that? I lost a young bantam last night and the only thing left was the beak and a very small bit of feathers stuck together. I've had something digging under the floor for a while but the hole were big enough that I thought it was red squirrels since I've seen them in my barn. What would dig through the floor and eat everything except the beak? Once I know what it is I can plan my counter attack. Ideas?

 

[PeeperKeeper]

Rat?

 

[Wolf-Kim]

A young bantam would be a pretty small bird, I could see rats being the culprit.

I had rats take two almost full sized Giant Coturnix quail and leave nothing but blood marks on the walls.

Weasels or something in the weasel family could have done it, but usually they are notoriously wasteful, killing multiple birds and leaving carnage and bodies behind. So I doubt it was anything in the weasel family.

Rats will kill, eat, and drag the remains down into a tunnel to be eaten later.

 

[redkan]

Hmmm .... I was wondering if it was rats after all. Well I saw what sounded like a good rat trap idea here this morning, time to set it up and see how many I can wipe out.

 

[theFox]

It could be a weasel.

 

[NurseNettie]

It could have been anything. I know that different animals have different ways of approaching and attacking prey, but there's no real rule of thumb. Rat, weasel, raccoon, fox- or anything in between or beyond.
Sorry to hear about your lost, though.

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