Predator identification

[gaving101]

the other day I went out to the coop to find piles of feathers throughout the yard I searched for the chicken and it turns out to only be 1 missing with only its head and throat left behind and another chicken seems to have feathers pulled on her back near her neck but no major injuries. Can anyone help me identify what killed my chicken?

 

[iawoodchip]

the other day I went out to the coop to find piles of feathers throughout the yard I searched for the chicken and it turns out to only be 1 missing with only its head and throat left behind and another chicken seems to have feathers pulled on her back near her neck but no major injuries. Can anyone help me identify what killed my chicken?

Just yesterday at sunrise my chicken were doing a lot of excess chatter. While heading to open the coop it looked like a chicken fight going on. Looking closer it was a large bird escaping through the hole in the window it had created. It really looked like a owl, but looking in from 50 foot away I couldn't be positive. There was two dead with the heads off but hadn't been long enough for rig' to set in so I processed them. Then I lost another in the afternoon, under the raspberries....; Jim >>> Just talked with my neighbor. He said there's been a bared owl in the tree behind him lately

 

[vanessar]

yes leaving just the body with the heads gone sounds like an owl. We have had that happen to our chickens in the past as well

 

[keesmom]

Raccoons and fishers also fit the MO.