Raptor migration season - watch out!

[Qi Chicken]

Hmmm. I wonder what I saw today. Middle of Iowa. There was a smallish hawk type bird, my husband said Kestral? in the tree. I heard some kind of strange sounds from the chickens and went out to look. They were all grouped together in a tight little huddle under the zinnias and cosmos. Except one. She was wandering around alone like usual. Eventually they all sort of wandered off again. First time I've seen them hide like that. I'll have to get my bird ID book out. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[GammaPoppyLilyFlutter]

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Perhaps a young falcon? One landed on my fence while my chickens were out, and they made one unusually loud cluck and hid under a bush. They're smaller than hawks and kinda speckled

 

[AlbionWood]

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Kestrels are quite small, only a little larger than a Jay, and no threat to adult chickens. They mostly eat insects, but will also take small birds.

Could also have been a Sharp-Shinned hawk though, they are a smallish hawk that hunts birds, they look very similar to a Cooper's but are generally smaller and a little less aggressive. I doubt they would go after a grown chicken, but it's possible, especially with young birds in fall and winter when they get desperate.

Chickens of course cannot tell the difference between one raptor and another - mine have been freaked out repeatedly the last couple of days (ever since the Cooper's killed that hen) by Turkey Vultures, which of course are completely harmless. Yesterday we had a Sharp-Shinned fly-by and that really spooked them (me too, until I realized it wasn't the Cooper's back for another meal)!

 

[AlbionWood]

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Here's my favorite story concerning Harris' Hawks: A woman in Arizona was tossing heads of lettuce into her back yard. When asked why, she replied: "For the Harris Hawks."

"Harris Hawks don't eat lettuce!"

"No, but Rabbits do."

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

That is great! Before we had chickens we'd put wild bird food in the feeder and it would almost immediately attract large flocks of small birds followed by Cooper's and Kestrals. It was great fun to watch. They usually weren't successful, but it was always a good show. I have a friend over on the other side of town that said he sees Harris hawks nearly daily and they are terrors on the neighborhood pets. He also said they appeared shockingly intelligent in their hunting practices. I really hope they stay over there.

 

[Happycowdog]

Thank you for the ideas! I just had a hawk take a nose dive from out of nowhere when I was on the front porch with my chickens. I was sitting right there too! He tried to get my Easter Egger who was eating salad from my hand...

 

[paul123]

I can't believe this saw two huge eagles yesterday saw em last year but thought they wouldn't come back i'm so mad luckily they didn't take any of my birds. Saw them when we where pulling into the drive way once we got out of the car they were gone hope they don't come back.

 

[Suechick]

Thank you everyone! We've seen hawks 4 times in the past week. 3 times they were perched just a few feet away from my chickens. I'll be working on something to keep my babies safe. Does anyone have suggestions for low cost deterrents? I can't afford the time or $$ to build a large covered run so I need other ideas. Thanks.

 

[operator16]

I went to the grocery store and spent $12.00 on 5 birthday, colorful, mylar balloons and have tied them up in the garden. It looks like we're going to have a party. I hope those bobbing, squirrelly, balloons might give a cautious hawk the idea to scoot on out to another more predictable garden. We'll see. I could be fooling myself. I know those birds are very intelligent. As I pulled into our drive this morning, I saw a huge hawk looking for either food or a nice thermal over our property. I called my son and had him run outside and make a lot of noise. I hope my girls will be ok. But, I do know that nature is pretty amazing in it's ability to survive!

 

[cparian]

The hawks have been relentless here over the past 4 weeks. One got a 3 week old chick, the mother tried to fight it off but the hawk flew away with "Herman" before I could get outside & help. It was sad since it was her only chick, she worked so hard to hatch it & the guinea keets, then the guinea mother took all the guinea babies so all she had left was him. Then 2 weeks later it got a 3 week old guinea keet. They are not bothering the older chickens just the babies. Haven't had any problems til just this last month.