Owls A threat?

[EweSheep]

Last night my hubby and I was working on our shed, replacing the floor and hubby said it flew behind him, reflecting the shadow on the coop wall from the street light. It was sitting on the power lines and watching all of us. Not sure if they are a threat but it was unafraid of people standing around, taking pictures. When we got done, it was still sitting there. I took some pictures but it was mostly blurry. I believe it was a Barred Owl but we live IN the city but not sure if it is common for them to be around.

http://www.owl-pictures.com/barred_owl.html

I know my girls were sitting on the perch waiting for us to get coop done and they were nervous, understandably so.

Would they consider to be a threat? We have a green snow fence on top of the run. It would be very nasty if the owl got into it.

We were having problems with field mice and sewer rats under our coop and one got away when we pulled the floor off from the concrete pavings. Now the floor is on concrete blocks to deter them from making their home under the coop.

 

[EweSheep]

Here is the picture of the owl.

It has to be a Barred Owl....

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Barred owl is potential threat to juvenile chickens, especially when not attended by adults on roost. Barred owls like to push small birds of roost then catch them on ground. Great horned wil take adult and smaller straight off roost. Great horned will also eat barred owl if it can catch it.

If area under coop dry, mice and rats will still burrow under ground and come up at night to forage.

 

[mangled]

Owls are indeed a threat. We've had a Great Horned Owl go through a small opening at the top of the run and got down into the run. The pop door was closed, but he would have done SERIOUS damage had it not been. He was massive.

We've had no problems since the run has been completely closed off, but occasionally, I'll go out after dark to check the bunnies and one will be sitting on the roof or the edge of the run.

Em

 

[centrarchid]

Bird pictured is barred owl.

 

[EweSheep]

Have no idea where this barred owl came from. We do have a school/playground park a block down from us. A bigger park would be about two miles south of us which deers and coons could be found there.

Do they keep coming back to hunt for mice? I dont mind owls but better not get tangled up in the net because several feral cats and a coon got tangled up in it really bad. A .22 suffice in settling them down. Had hawks in the city flying around but never got close like this owl did.

I do have some three month old Welsummer girl and a boy so they were more nervous than the older birds. My bantams were clucking constantly and I had to gather them up by hand to put them back in the shed for the night and lock the doggie door.

Everything was ok...I was hoping for some owl scat so my DD can see what they eat. Nothing yet!

 

[berkeleysprings]

owl will move more atr night when chickens ar sleeping but u should cattle fencr the top of run . but watch out for the racoons are the worst .they will make short work of the plastic temp fence

 

[rungirl]

Oh, they are certainly a threat. I had a close call when one flew into my coop one night when I forgot to close the door. It pulled the wing feathers out of a hen that got away and was looking for another victim when I ran in there and chased it out. They're huge and scary up close!

 

[centrarchid]

Urban settings provide a surprising amount of habitat potential for barred owls. They readily take advantage of small woodlots, abanded lots and areas along ditches where small rodents are abundant. They are also less impacted than mammalian predators by fences bounding yards. Home ranges do not have to be very large to encompass all the barred owl requires. The bird could easily have a home range with a one mile radius. Find its roost and you can find regurgitated pellets which are easier to analize for prey remains than scat / feces. Look for conifer stand to find roost. Pellets might be first thing you find providing reason to look up.

 

[ChickenToes]

I've only had one bird killed by a predator, and that predator was an owl. Definitely a threat.