Will a Bald eagle go after a chicken?

[blythspirit]

I have witnesses a hawk taking a chicken right out of the open chicken yard at my family friends house as a child..not 20 feet from me. I have witnessed an eagle taking a chicken that was free ranging by the road not a mile from here. I have a friend who lives 9 miles from me who witnessed a bald eagle take her mamma goose out of an open field...and because the goose was so heavy it dragged it about 20 yards landed and ate it right there...becasue it is a protected raptor..she couldn't do a thing about it at the time. Now her birds are all fenced in, including roofs to keep out the Noble bird....

 

[cvandermerwe]

Eagles are some of the only raptors that can physically take down a goose on the ground. I know of quite a few raptors who have met their demise trying to take on Canada geese. Those wings are deadly!

I have a falconer/retired dnr friend that has a sequence of pictures he took of a wild eastern turkey hen beating the snot out of a Red-tailed hawk that was looking at her chicks the wrong way. I'll ask him if I can repost his story and pics here, it's actually quite incredible to see.

 

[bilsie]

I'd love to see those pictures. We live on Vancouver Island. Shortly after getting our chickens I was working in the compost box and heard something. I turned around and here is a Bald Eagle with his back to me about 1 foot off the ground, wings extend and leaving. He was right outside a small fence foyer where garden and chicken yard meet and when my back was turned he would have been about 10' from me. The next time I saw one it was right over the garden but we had stung wire all over so the chickens could free range in there. The wires were all bouncing. Then getting ready to plant we moved the chickens over to under the trees but again strung wire - to the point that I thought it was excessive. WELL! I am working in the corner of the garden about 25 -30' away and again heard something, look and the Eagle is down beside the chicken house well I go bounding over, hoe in hand, start whacking on the fence posts screaming at the thing, yelling for my husband, Of course it pays me no mind at all but it does decide to leave but it hit those wires, so it moves over and goes up and out right in front of me - we were separated by perhaps 2' with the flimsiest plastic mesh being all that was between us. Oh My, that beak, those talons, the size of it, WOW. Now I must tell you that for all that, we didn't lose a chicken, just a bunch of feathers. I can also tell you that something big and airborne also tried to get our cat.

 

[Al Capon]

About 15 minutes ago, the few crows that I feed in the backyard went absolutely ape-$@^# with their calls, enough for me to see what they were doing. Chickens, not hearing anything like that, ran for cover. Looked up and there were a pair of adult bald eagles circling over head not more than 75 yards up, could clearly see the white head.

They kept flying for a mile or so, long enough for me to put the chickens up, then I saw them flying back the other way, way up high, just low enough for me to make them out. Don't know why they're flying over suburb/ farm land, nearest lake is miles away.

Hope they don't make a habit out of it..

 

[Jammerz]

We had a juvenile bald eagle sit in a cottonwood tree and pick off chickens. He killed 30 in one day. My grandpa went out and shot him with his 30-30. You do what you have to do to protect your flock. ANY bird of prey will kill chickens. We also had a bobcat get into the coop one night and killed 20 or so.
Set a #4 Victor long spring on TOP of the corral fencing every night. Caught him the 3rd night.

 

[Acre4Me]

We had a juvenile bald eagle sit in a cottonwood tree and pick off chickens. He killed 30 in one day. My grandpa went out and shot him with his 30-30. You do what you have to do to protect your flock. ANY bird of prey will kill chickens. We also had a bobcat get into the coop one night and killed 20 or so.
Set a #4 Victor long spring on TOP of the corral fencing every night. Caught him the 3rd night.

Just FYI it’s against the law in the US to kill a raptor such as a bald eagle. Even if they are dining on your chickens. So, bad advice to kill a raptor.

 

[cmom]

We had a juvenile bald eagle sit in a cottonwood tree and pick off chickens. He killed 30 in one day. ANY bird of prey will kill chickens. We also had a bobcat get into the coop one night and killed 20 or so.
Set a #4 Victor long spring on TOP of the corral fencing every night. Caught him the 3rd night.

We had a bobcat kill 14 birds. It didn't come back the next night but did the following night and we caught it. I have seen Bald Eagles here. We have a lake down the road with hammocks in the lake so a lot of birds nest there as there is some protection for their young. There were 2 birds but one flew off when I snapped this shot. I've seen some immature Bald Eagles. They are huge but lack the white feathers.