Unexpected hawk scare

[My Three Chicks]

I've been in my suburban backyard with the girls. My lot is 1/3 acre so the backyard is half of that. The backyard is heavily tree'ed (see pic) and we've never felt aerial predators were a real threat given that fact. You can't see into my yard from the open sky above.
I let my 6 girls out of their Run when I'm home (which is a lot, pretty much 80% of their waking hour).

Well just a few minutes ago I hear my Dominique scream and run across the yard. I turn around to catch a glimpse of what looked like a hawk flying away. Based on the patterning of the open wings maybe a Cooper's hawk. It was flying quite low like it obviously flew under the multiple canopies of the tree.

I obviously ran around screaming at it
My question is...is this common and normal hawk behavior? I am so surprised that 1 - it saw my chickens and 2 - maneuvered under the tree canopy to them.
Lastly whay would it do it it got to my girls? They are fully grown 5-7 lb hens. Is it looking to attack and fly away with one? The hawk can't be much bigger than my hens.

Anyway I'm rambling. A little anxious at the moment.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Yes, that's normal behavior for a Hawk, they can land and just walk into areas too.

A Hawk can kill an adult hen (or rooster) or severely injure them. The Hawk is looking for a meal.

 

[SamLockwood]

Normal behavior for a hawk. They'll make a kill, drag the victim up to you 30 feet away, and feast on it.

Raptors are very persistent, and their long distance vision is about 8 times better than a human's. I recommend keeping your hens locked up for a week or two and see if the hawk goes away.

 

[Lulu-vt]

I've been in my suburban backyard with the girls. My lot is 1/3 acre so the backyard is half of that. The backyard is heavily tree'ed (see pic) and we've never felt aerial predators were a real threat given that fact. You can't see into my yard from the open sky above.
I let my 6 girls out of their Run when I'm home (which is a lot, pretty much 80% of their waking hour).

Well just a few minutes ago I hear my Dominique scream and run across the yard. I turn around to catch a glimpse of what looked like a hawk flying away. Based on the patterning of the open wings maybe a Cooper's hawk. It was flying quite low like it obviously flew under the multiple canopies of the tree.
View attachment 3934235
I obviously ran around screaming at it
My question is...is this common and normal hawk behavior? I am so surprised that 1 - it saw my chickens and 2 - maneuvered under the tree canopy to them.
Lastly whay would it do it it got to my girls? They are fully grown 5-7 lb hens. Is it looking to attack and fly away with one? The hawk can't be much bigger than my hens.

Anyway I'm rambling. A little anxious at the moment.

I basically just posted the same post as you! We also had a fly by. It’s been the second one, almost like a reconnaissance mission! The hawks seem small to be able to lift off with a chicken but I’m not sure. Good luck with yours.

 

[Indio Gigante Lover]

I've just learned to never underestimate a desperately hungry hawk! Thu around noon I went out back & not a chicken anywhere out in the big run - I checked to make sure their auto door had opened, it had, but they were all huddled inside so I knew a hawk was around, even though I looked up & into trees, as I have total tree cover like you do, but couldn't see it. I also have a smaller pen with a couple 2 1/2 mo old birds in it. It's covered on the top with 1/2" plastic poly, but the piece of poly was odd shaped, so there was about a 4" gap on 1 corner, but since grow-out birds were only in it during the day, I never worried about it. I looked in that pen & there was the hawk in there! It was a juvenile red tail, not much bigger than the chickens in there & had killed 1. It must have been so desperately hungry that it took a chance on hopping down that small hole in the top. I would have liked to try to catch it & relocate it far away, but when it saw me coming towards pen it looked at me & threateningly opened it's beak at me. I managed to get pen door open & it took off.

I'd always known hawks to swoop down & grab prey, so this was something totally new to me! It's changed my whole perspective on what's safe from hawks.

 

[Indio Gigante Lover]

Lastly whay would it do it it got to my girls? They are fully grown 5-7 lb hens. Is it looking to attack and fly away with one? The hawk can't be much bigger than my hens.

Many times hawks will swoop down on a chicken, knock it down & rip the neck off 1st to instantly kill it's prey. If something startles it, that may be all it manages to carry off, but if undisturbed, it can eat it's fill right there on the ground without ever carrying the whole bird away, or rip off pieces to take back to it's young

 

[Lulu-vt]

I've just learned to never underestimate a desperately hungry hawk! Thu around noon I went out back & not a chicken anywhere out in the big run - I checked to make sure their auto door had opened, it had, but they were all huddled inside so I knew a hawk was around, even though I looked up & into trees, as I have total tree cover like you do, but couldn't see it. I also have a smaller pen with a couple 2 1/2 mo old birds in it. It's covered on the top with 1/2" plastic poly, but the piece of poly was odd shaped, so there was about a 4" gap on 1 corner, but since grow-out birds were only in it during the day, I never worried about it. I looked in that pen & there was the hawk in there! It was a juvenile red tail, not much bigger than the chickens in there & had killed 1. It must have been so desperately hungry that it took a chance on hopping down that small hole in the top. I would have liked to try to catch it & relocate it far away, but when it saw me coming towards pen it looked at me & threateningly opened it's beak at me. I managed to get pen door open & it took off.

I'd always known hawks to swoop down & grab prey, so this was something totally new to me! It's changed my whole perspective on what's safe from hawks.

Oh wow!!! That’s insane. Yikes. I’m so sorry you lost one. Thanks for telling me your story. I didn’t realize Hawks did that. I thought they just swooped down in open space

 

[PimsGarden]

Birds of prey can only fly off with 1/3 of their weight max. At my work where hawks are more common threats on the chickens I work with, the area with more trees is more prone to hawk attacks than the area without any trees. They will hide in the trees and I think they prefer that over having to be in open skies and attack. I have also seen them fly into a coop and eat bantams in the coop. You wanna keep your birds up for a while till that hawk has been away for a minute.

I have so many hawks at home that I just went ahead and put up 8ft poles around my run and then used deer netting to completely cover the run and used a screen door with sheet cloth and netting on it to enter the run. Now I have a redneck aviary hahaha.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

My flock consists of anywhere from 50-100 completely free-range chickens that sleep in trees at night. I believe that trees prevent hawk attacks, but it's bushes that ruin hawk attacks

Hawks only attack here a handful of times each year (because of the trees) and when they attack I've seen my chickens jump into a bush and the hawk awkwardly crash into the bush. For this exact reason I would strongly recommend having a mixture of different sized vegetation around. Chickens are the descendants of junglefowl, and it's in thick vegetation that they really thrive

So in short, hawks can't see through trees and they can't attack through bushes (at least not my gamefowl)

I would also recommend having tough chicken breeds to deal with the hawks personally. My Sumatra are hawk-fighters and I've seen my rooster tackle a hawk out of the air to 1v1 it

 

[My Three Chicks]

Thanks for all the feedback ya'll. I had no idea they were so agile. I'm going to try to install some deterrent and definitely continue to keep a close eye on my girls. I haven't seen it come back since that 1st time 2 weeks ago.