What are hawks afraid of?

[drtomato]

I was told to get some fake crows because hawks are afraid of them.Is this true and is the anything else?

 

[setter4]

I talked to one of the Pa. Game Wardens and he told me either fake crows or a fake owl. The problem with a fake owl is that it might attract real crows trying to scare it off. lol

 

[spook]

I don't know, we have crows, but the red tail hawk is big enough to eat the crow. I have had horrible hawk issues this year, 2 of my babies and the rest will not come out of their coop! These girls have a net covering the large run and they will only come out if I'm with them. Its sad.
I wonder if when I'm not out there that they come and sit in the trees watching the hens. That would be horrible, I have not seen anything but something makes the hens so terrified.
Good luck, what ever you try will only work so long, they are not as dumb as we wish they were! Oh, and keep us posted, I'd love some new ideas.

 

[Mstmae]

I was looking to solve an owl problem that occured (ate a baby and possibly one of my fullgrown babies) a few weeks ago, and one suggestion for birds of all kinds were to hang cds from your trees, or up on porches where the sun would reflect them, and it would catch the birds eye. I haven't put up the cds yet, but I need to get fishing string, and string them up.
Great way to recycle those old cds you used to get in the mail from AOL and other internet providers!
Just a thought, hope this helps!

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Crows harrass them by ganging up and mobbing them. Plus, crows tend to scare off prey because they're so noisy. Hunters hate them because they'll tell on your location.

However, the downside to attracting crows is that they will steal your eggs (if they learn where they are) and they'll steal chicks.

String up some old CDs where they'll flash in the sun, it will discourage Mr. & Ms. Hawk from flying into your yard (or at least make'em think hard before doing it). SpeckledHen and several other members here use that method.

 

[Agilityscots]

I used CDs to deter a red-tailed hawk from nest robbing.

We had a little robin couple build a nest behind one of our lanterns near our garage, up against the wall. When the babies were about 4-5 days old, I was talking to my mother on the phone when I saw an enormous red-tailed hawk swoop in sideways, ready to raid the nest. I'm used to running them off of my birdfeeders, so I jumped up and slammed the glass windows with my hands, and the hawk veered off and left. I was desperate to keep this hawk from raiding the nest--I know it probably had babies of its own to feed, too, but I wanted it to go find some that I didn't have to watch die--so I hung four CDs from twine about 12" from my gutter. Worked like a charm. Mama Robin wasn't deterred by them at all, but the hawk never returned, and nobody else got any bright ideas, either. Three of the four babies fledged.

Amy

 

[drtomato]

Thank you for all your help!!

 

[scooter147]

I had one that sat on a branch in a oak tree and licked his beak all day long looking at my chickens. I hung two wind socks in the oak tree and I have not seen him sitting on his favorite branch in four days now.
The chickens are finally acting a little more normal, although this morning they freaked again when a dove flew too low over the run.

 

[cmom]

Crows do harrass the hawks. We have quite a few crows around where we live and they have never bothered any of my birds. I have RIR hens. They are larger than the crows. I know people who use CD's too and string them up and that seems to help.

 

[Miss Elle]

There were two Red Tail hawks perched in my yard yest. My boys said they were trying to get in to the run! Fortunately my boys scarred them off but they remained watchful for a while. All of my girls were huddled together under the coop. These hawks were about 2 feet tall, not including their tails and the wing span was at least 4 feet. Beautiful and majestic but I don't want to get my girls! Love the CD idea, will work on that today! This was the smaller of the two..YIKES!