Owls eating my budgies?

[jak2002003]

I had 12 budgies... all living in large flight cage which is hanging form a tree in my garden.

I have had them for over 7 years and they are very much loved pets and tame enough to eat from my hand.

A few weeks ago I went to feed them and saw one dead on the cage floor with its wings and head missing. I was so upset. I could not think how that happened.

I put it down to a one off thing....

No more problems... until last week I went out for a few hours in the afternoon.. came home with some steamed corn for my budgies and when I went to feed them their treat I saw 2 were dead on the cage floor.. again no wings. Their tails were missing and they had half eaten heads.

So now I took the cage and fixed it up high under the roof overhang of my house. Smooth walls so nothing could climb or jump up to the cage. I thought that would stop any cat or other animal getting to the birds.

No more problems... until this morning... another dead bird with one wing missing and chewed up head and body. 2 more budgies have missing tails.

I can only think that its an owl getting them at night. Could that be right? Do owls eat small birds at night? We have a few small owls around.. often see them flying about the garden and perching on the trees and fences.

I now have the remaining budgies in a small cage inside my chicken coop... but I feel so sorry for them as they are used to a huge cage. I wanted to make them an aviary.. but if the predator can get them now... they will surely be able to get them in the aviary.

I am so upset and feel I can't look after my birds.. I hate to see them in the small cage... but he big flight cage will not fit through the coop door.

Any advice?

 

[jak2002003]

PS. I thought about covering the cage at night.. but one of the attacks happened in the daytime... so I can't keep them covered all the time.

 

[Steampunked]

Hmm, you're in Thailand, so no raccoons.

Barn owls can and will hunt during the day, but I wouldn't imagine they'd take budgies through a metal mesh!

But this could also be a cat being cunning. And a feral cat will climb rather more than you might think it will. Other possibilities are rats, which live everywhere and can easily climb up the side of a house, or mongoose if you live in an area that has them. If there are weasels where you live, they are also possibly an option - the challenges of climbing your house are probably less than the challenges of finding unknown food.

 

[jak2002003]

Hmm, you're in Thailand, so no raccoons.

Barn owls can and will hunt during the day, but I wouldn't imagine they'd take budgies through a metal mesh!

But this could also be a cat being cunning. And a feral cat will climb rather more than you might think it will. Other possibilities are rats, which live everywhere and can easily climb up the side of a house, or mongoose if you live in an area that has them. If there are weasels where you live, they are also possibly an option - the challenges of climbing your house are probably less than the challenges of finding unknown food.

I just found out what is was yesterday. Its not the owls. Its some kind of large bird of prey hawk thing. Its all black with a short tail.

It is very agile and jumps up and down all over the cage until it get a bird caught through the wire.

I am keeping the budgies in a small cage in my chicken coop for their protection. Now I am worried about my chickens too.. as I was told that that bird also likes to eat chicks and even my bantam chickens!!!

I had a Thai friend at my house when the attack happened. She told me those birds are very rare and she has only ever seen one once before. I looked in all my bird books but could not find out what kind it was.

Had so many problems with predators in this new area. My old house only had the occasional cat.

Here I have had packs of dogs getting in and killing my Guinea fowl when they few down from the trees in the morning... then getting in again and ripping all the metal mesh from my chickens aviary and killing some of them.

Mongoose killing 14 of my fancy pigeons.

Pythons eating my ducks at night on their island.

Now this hawk thing.

ARRHH!!!!!!!!!!