Throughout the summer, and fall now, I ( and my neighbors) have had a alot of Red Tail Hawk attacks. We have at least 5 in our area. I saw them circling together over my area during the early summer. ( I believe it is a pair with growing young.) Anyway, out of the chickens I have lost, 4 in all, they have had the same damage done to them. All of them have all the feathers and meat stripped from their throat, right down to the trachea. The chest feathers on some have been scratched off too. I thought I was dealing with another predator, like a racoon, or mink, which we do have, had I not caught a hawk in the act. My question is, why does the hawk only eat the neck, and leave the rest of the chicken untouched? Do they leave it and come back for more? I've tried researching this but have not come up with anything. The last chicken I found dead only had two holes on her neck, but I think the attack was interupted, because my daughters went down there, and when I found the chicken, she was still warm.
Thanks for any replies!
ETA: I changed the title of my thread to hopefully get answers for that question specifically.
Thanks for any replies!
ETA: I changed the title of my thread to hopefully get answers for that question specifically.
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