Symptoms of Crow Predation on Chicks?

[Florida Bullfrog]

Here’s my situation. I have a free range flock of around 110 head of adult and juvenile birds. Mostly red jungle fowl hybrids, but also mixed layers and guineafowl. My birds free range from dawn to dusk. 40 acres, mostly blueberry fields but also lots of woods. Surrounded by thousands of acres of woods. Every predator native to my part of Florida is present minus Florida panthers and unconfirmed whether weasels or minks are present.

I generally don’t lose adult birds between the alertness of my jungle fowl and my free range dogs. 1 hen to a hawk, 1 guinea to a snake, 1 guinea likely to a bobcat. That’s all in a year’s time Once in a while I lose a bitty or too but I figure that’s par for the course. Sometimes even bullfrogs and bass make attempts on them at waterside. Most bitties make it to adulthood without my intervention.

Several weeks ago I had a hatch of 25 jungle fowl bitties between 2 hens. The hens abandoned the bitties after about a month. They finned for themselves and I’d steadily lose 1-3 chicks a day several days in a row. Finally the last 5 proved to be resilient and they’re holding on. But I couldn’t diagnose a particular predator to save my life. All I could do was narrow the time frame down to daylight hours when the bitties would be taken. I also noted the adults generally stayed calm and showed no obvious signs of a predator hanging about. No sign of disease. Just disappearing bitties. The bitties did seem very weary of the sky and stuck to cover but the other chickens did not.

So recently I turned loose some guinea keets. Several weeks old, about the size of my hand to fingertips. One disappeared on day 2 of free ranging. A second had a wounded leg the same day the first disappeared. I gathered them up and penned them for a couple more weeks then turned them out again. A third disappeared after day 4 or 5 of free ranging, then appeared this morning with wounded legs. I actually cant find the wounds. Just that it hobbles. Like something had ahold of it and it struggled free. It must have spent yesterday laid up somewhere recuperating.

I can’t imagine a predator that can so efficiently take multiple chicks every day but struggles with larger guinea keets and can be so stealthy that I never see it.

Crow live constantly over my coop and the blueberry fields where the chicks run. I let them be because I figure they keep hawks at bay. But they always hang out with the chicken flock. This started about the time chicks began disappearing.

I never asked myself what the crows were getting out of the arrangement. They don’t have access to feed or eggs.

What does crow predation look like?

 

[sourland]

My gut instinct is that a Cooper's hawk is the more likely predator. I have never had a crow take a chick, keet, or duckling.

 

[centrarchid]

Coopers Hawk

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Would a Cooper’s hawk ignore adults? And are they particularly more stealthy than other hawks? We have resident red shouldered hawks. When they appear close the chickens will hide quiet for an hour. Chicks have disappeared with no panic from the adult chickens while I’ve been out doing projects on weekends. That’s what has me puzzled. It makes me think of a stealthy ground predator not withstanding the chicks obviously watching the sky but I can’t think of a ground predator that would only take chicks during the day. I was pretty much leaning towards it being bass and bullfrogs from the pond and they make goes at watering chickens almost any time I sit by the pond. Until the guineas started showing up with leg wounds. I don’t think either has the means to do lasting wounds to guinea legs.

The crows are the only constant. This morning someone told me about losing several of his chicks to crows and it took a long time for him to catch the crows in the act. That’s what prompted me to seek other experiences. I haven’t yet observed the crows make a move on the chickens. They’re just always present.

 

[centrarchid]

Pictures of your actual hawks would be nice. No internet sourced images. Coopers Hawks size selective and sneaky.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Pictures of your actual hawks would be nice. No internet sourced images. Coopers Hawks size selective and sneaky.

I don’t see them often enough or close enough to get a good picture. Not reliably anyhow. I might be able to more easily record their calls in the distance. I have listened to the call of a Cooper’s hawk and its something I’ve only heard in north central Florida, south of me. Usually around water and quite honestly I always thought was some sort of water bird. Or sort of like the call of the smaller lord god (pileated woodpecker).

My hawks sound like this:

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

But of course the whole point of this thread is that I have a stealth daytime predator I can’t catch in the act. I can’t say that there are no Cooper’s hawks around separately from the red shouldered hawks. But I can’t see or hear them if they are. I wouldn’t necessarily know the Cooper’s hawk by look in the distance but when I see a hawk they call as red shouldered hawks.

 

[centrarchid]

I deal with hawks a frequently. Red-shouldered Hawks talk a lot and are relatively obvious when about. Coopers Hawk seldom make noise unless near nest site. I acknowledge animals can differ markedly based on behavior across large ranges, but in my experience, Red-shouldered Hawks do not make a habit of going after chickens. If you have a hawk (Buteo sp.) scaring the chickens, then you may not be seeing a Red-shouldered Hawk. That is why I want to see a picture off of your "Red-shouldered Hawk". My chickens show little or no fear of Red-shouldered Hawks.

I have seen crows kill morning and largely consume Morning Doves and Rock Doves (pigeons). They do not drag the carcass away without leaving lots of feather sign. In most instances they consumed the carcass at kill site. There would be crows operating in a family unit catching either an immature bird or one with health issues. Crows involved where American Crows. I have Fish Crows as well which might be in your area too. They are easy to tell apart.

Coopers Hawks are real good at sneaking in and taking juveniles past point of protection by hens. That is were my game roosters come in as they will associate with those vulnerable juveniles until at least 10 weeks post hatch. The roosters may have behaviors your "Red Jungle Fowl" lack.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I deal with hawks a frequently. Red-shouldered Hawks talk a lot and are relatively obvious when about. Coopers Hawk seldom make noise unless near nest site. I acknowledge animals can differ markedly based on behavior across large ranges, but in my experience, Red-shouldered Hawks do not make a habit of going after chickens. If you have a hawk (Buteo sp.) scaring the chickens, then you may not be seeing a Red-shouldered Hawk. That is why I want to see a picture off of your "Red-shouldered Hawk". My chickens show little or no fear of Red-shouldered Hawks.

I have seen crows kill morning and largely consume Morning Doves and Rock Doves (pigeons). They do not drag the carcass away without leaving lots of feather sign. In most instances they consumed the carcass at kill site. There would be crows operating in a family unit catching either an immature bird or one with health issues. Crows involved where American Crows. I have Fish Crows as well which might be in your area too. They are easy to tell apart.

Coopers Hawks are real good at sneaking in and taking juveniles past point of protection by hens. That is were my game roosters come in as they will associate with those vulnerable juveniles until at least 10 weeks post hatch. The roosters may have behaviors your "Red Jungle Fowl" lack.

I acknowledge what you're saying. I just can't take a picture of what I can't see. I don't know the hawks I don't see or hear often, but I do know the red shouldered hawks because of how common they are in the woods. They have taken chicks, but they're easy to catch in the act. They usually perch and stare for a long time while the chickens cause a ruckus. If they're successful in catching a chick, I can usually see them fly off with it and they call to their mates and they also get mobbed by grows when they have something. Last time I had any issues with them that I could confirm was back in January or February. There was one day I lost 3 chicks in a day but I caught the hawk doing it each time and the chickens were beside themselves.

There was one evening since that I was throwing some feed out to the chickens and a smallish hawk flew in low and fast from the blueberry field and caught a JF hen at my feet and it let her go when I stomped my foot at it. Had I not been there I believe it could have flew off with her with some effort. I presumed it was a red shouldered hawk because it was about the same size and grey but it never called. That could have been a Cooper's hawk, but I haven't see a hawk fly in like that since. When I've seen hawks fly through recently where the chickens have hid, they've been red shouldered hawks because they call as red shouldered hawks.

I have 15 acres of head-high rows of blueberries. It is possible a hawk is using the rows as cover. I just can't see it happen.

I have found a couple of dead chicks near the coop but those were just a few days after hatching and I figured they were weaklings that couldn't keep up. When this massive waive of disappearances started with that brood of chicks, they were much older and faster. I have not found any bodies since this waive has started.

If you mean your roosters have aggression in them that will whip a hawk, no my RJF roosters don't have any predator-fight in them. They just run and hide. That's something I hope to introduce when I cross the aseel into some of them.

 

[centrarchid]

I would be setting a game camera out. It has been several years, but I had a group that kept going a couple hundred yards across field to get to a neighbors thicket. A Red Fox would then give chase and catch those that could not fly back to yard in one flight. The young juveniles about 5 weeks post-hatch were taking all the losses. Chicks with reduced flight capacity (fighting cocci) were take first. Then fox started going after those that could reach yard to catch those on the ground. The balance of flock would land 12 to 20 feet up on roof of house. Some of the juveniles could pull that off. My young dog then got into the act and started going after fox. Up to that point I thought a bird was taking the young birds. One of the young ones flew the wrong way well down into the woods. He came back into yard almost a month later after living in woods alone all that time.