I think a little refining is needed too.
My experience is limited, but 4 known for sure.
Dogs- mass death, little visible body damage, little blood on beak.
Feral cat- missing juvenile chicks.
Hawk- head/brains eaten, chest feathers plucked and muscle eaten, solitary puff of feathers around body.
Rat snake- dead young chicks that looked pretty uninjured other than dead/, "wet" looking in hindsight. Discovered the snake the next night in the brooder, had ingested one chick and couldn't get back out.
My other case was unsolved. I stupidly forgot to shut the coop door. All 7 chickens were killed. 2 or 3 bodies were found headless, the rest were missing. There were areas with plucked feather bursts, some as far as 500ft away.
It's like Predator CSI sometimes.
