Pest x Predator Interaction

[centrarchid]

Somebody took out a starling the morning and I found it's disarticulated carcass largely picked free of flesh in on of my game chicken pens. Falcon could not have eaten that much in one sitting so either a Coopers came in or the chickens had their way with the carcass. Coopers would normally have eaten most of the bone and like the falcon would leave a lot of feathers. I think the chickens did at least some of the eating. Carcass parts did look rough.

 

[centrarchid]

Another freshly killed starling from around noon. Kestrel is a serial killer. She eats a crop full then chickens take over and consume the balance of the carcass but not nearly as thorough. Despite falcon clearly making repeated kills, starlings (about 100) are still coming into barn and eating a lot of feed. They may be eating more than the chickens.

 

[centrarchid]

The falcon came in and killed yet another starling so up to 5 confirmed kills in the barn. As I approached barn there was at least a 100 buzzing around with even a few inside barn, therefore I assumed the raptor was not present. I was incorrect. Falcon was eating a freshly killed starling near base of a saw horse leg supporting a breeding pen above. Upon seeing me, the falcon launched with an obvious crop load and buzzed a hen just a couple feet away scratching about on the ground. Another hen was at most 3 feet from the falcon in full sight with no obstructions in between. No chickens produced an alarm as the falcon flew out. Normally I would expect every chicken in the place to go after the falcon and attempt to kill it. For some reason they are paying her no mind. This be new for me.

 

[centrarchid]

I pattern developing with female American Kestrel preying on starlings. If falcon allowed to eat carcass, two days required to consume and no more starlings killed during that interval by the falcon. If carcass removed or consumed by chickens, then falcon will kill again the next day. I will start policing up carcasses to promote higher killing rate. Even so the little raptor makes no difference. I need three or four Coopers Hawks to put a real dent in the starling numbers polluting my barn.