What predator does this?...

[shelleyb1969]

1) Attacks in the morning hours (my attack happened between 8 and 10am.)
2) Strips the neck of all feathers and eats what little bit of meat was on the neck...but leaves the head intact and attached to the body.
3) Rips open the crop but leaves its contents uneaten

This was a very scary attack. The pen that my birds were in actually backed up to my heavily stocked tomatoe garden. The predator went through the opening to the tomatoe garden and apparantely hid in the vines until just the right moment to strike. It didn't even try to pull the carcass through the fence. But along the way to the garden, it passed numerous pens, tractors, and even free ranging ducks and chickens. It apparently knew where the easiest meal could be found. Any ideas on what it could be?

 

[Lbrad7]

My thought would be a small raccoon or a weasel.

 

[shelleyb1969]

I had thought that maybe it was a mink...we don't have weasels where I live. But the neck feathers were in my tomatoe garden...not in the pen itself. And I thought that a mink more than likely would've just went through the fence into the pen itself and made hash out of more than just one bird?...instead of staying in the tomatoe garden and doing it's evil nastiness through the rabbit fence.

 

[zazouse]

Sounds like a hawk attack,sorry for your loss.

 

[shelleyb1969]

Quote:
Really? A hawk? I never would've guessed that. My tomatoe garden is HEAVILY vined and brushy...almost too dense and thick for me to even walk through. Whatever it was, it went beneath the tomatoe plants into the corner of the fence. It's so thick in that area that I can't even see into the garden at all. Thank you for your condolences, too.

 

[swheat]

Could also be an OWL ! I had one taking down grown ducks very early in the morning(before sunrise), and did exactly as you described. Opps..Just realized the time you posted-- Probably a hawk as others mentioned.

 

[CMV]

Classic raptor kill.

 

[shelleyb1969]

Wow...I just never would've guessed that a hawk could/would go through such dense underbrush and heavy vegetation to get to a bird. Especially when there were other birds more readily available and much easier to get to. Everyone in pens are safe and secure now. But I do still have the free ranging birds and ducks that will have to fend for themselves if it returns.

 

[Lothiriel]

All the hawk attacks I've had (quite a few) the hawk has taken the majority of the neck and/or head, and left the crop alone.

 

[shelleyb1969]

I may be totally wrong about it being a hawk, but seeing and knowing exactly how and where this happened...I just can't see a hawk being able to do it. Even my other half said that there's no way a hawk could get down through the garden to the spot where the kill was made. There were much easier ways for a hawk to go about it. And most hawks that I've seen aren't threatened enough to feel the need to hide behind the vegetation to make the kill. But I dunno...this has me stumped. Thus the reason for this thread. LOL