Texas

[Matejka]

Awwww! Beautiful babies. I'm so proud for you!

 

[Matejka]

Quick question. Can an owl-any type-pick up 10 lb animal?

 

[TX Chick Noob]

Quick question. Can an owl-any type-pick up 10 lb animal?

There is lots of conflicting information online (not surprisingly). Supposedly a great horned owl can lift up to around 5-6 pounds. Some websites say no bird of prey can lift much more than their own body weight. Others try to claim they can lift 3-4 times their weight. Overall most sites seem to agree there aren't any owls (or hawks) that could pick up and fly away with a 10 lb animal. But that doesn't mean they won't attack and kill them.

 

[electrycmonk]

One detail to remember when talking about wing strength… there was a very amazing research story about this very topic with a “GoPro” mounted on a special built backpack for an alpha predator bird. I saw this last year on PBS. I want to say it was from the UK. It was showing data on how strong it is and how heavy the remote control bunny(2 wheel bike) that it can grab and fly away with.

The details also went into explaining the designs of the bones, muscles and tendons that are like ratchets to allow the ability of the claws to “lock” and hold onto something while flying away.

 

[Mic's Chicks]

Quick question. Can an owl-any type-pick up 10 lb animal?

Several years back when I first moved to my farm I had 4 or 5 full grown black swedish ducks killed. They were in a topless pen and would get attacked in the evening before I locked them into their coop at night. I at first thought it was coyotes getting them. I would find body parts outside the pen and about 30 to 40 feet away in my pasture. Then one evening I walked around the corner of my house going to put them up just to see a great horned owl sitting on the gate watching them. I'm pretty sure it was him all along. Apparently he could grab them and lift off the ground just enough to get them out to the pasture........but not fly off completely with them. They were probably 7 to 10 pounds each.

 

[007Sean]

Gone back to watering my gourds, 3 times a day! Thought I had lost them, when I was in the hospital for 4 days, but had heavy thunderstorms for 2 of those days....thought for sure I would lose some birds but I didn't....

 

[Matejka]

Wow! Glad your home. Hospital is no place to be.

 

[Kiki]

@Madison Lane Farms You'll have the best luck asking her in this thread.

 

[RUNuts]

Loving the cool snap. Wish I could enjoy more of it outside.

 

[Matejka]

Been cleaning run out. Mowed. Now gonna dump grass cuttings in run and start filling it up. Last November I filled it to top of doghouse with leaves. They broke down beautifully. I raked the pine needles in run down to that layer of leaves and left that