Would a Hawk rip a chick apart leaving only feathers and the contents of its stomach?

[JessyGii]

could be a hawk or even crows, crows are mean birds that love to snack on other birds, when our blue birds hatch from our blue bird boxes crows like to wait in the trees right above the nests and wait for them to fledge the nests and then they do exactly this that happened to your chicks.

 

[maxpedley]

Thanks for the ideas. It definitely seemed like a feather bomb! I went and did a bit of detective work and on my next examination I found a non chicken feather in the mess. It was stripy and large I think it was a falcon or a harrier, they are the main birds of prey around here. I'll have to match the feather. There are no foxes in NZ but we have native owls though I'm sure it was a daytime kill.

I'll have to try and give them more sheltered areas to get cover in. Our pasture is surrounded by forest, but the chickens seem most vulnerable in the open. I will have to get my thinking cap on.

Id say owl then. You dont need to worry about falcons with chickens. They present no harm and buteo hawks don't have barred feathers, however some accipiter hawks do, but these are like sparrowhawks and goshawks. Tehy are able and will kill your chickens however they cant carry them away as they are quite small. Id say owl. they do hunt dduring the day aswell at night, and they will adapt quickly to hunting during the day if chickens are around!!

 

[JessyGii]

Id say owl then. You dont need to worry about falcons with chickens. They present no harm and buteo hawks don't have barred feathers, however some accipiter hawks do, but these are like sparrowhawks and goshawks. Tehy are able and will kill your chickens however they cant carry them away as they are quite small. Id say owl. they do hunt dduring the day aswell at night, and they will adapt quickly to hunting during the day if chickens are around!!

Falcons are defiantly something to worry about , falcons will get your chickens just like hawks and owls. falcons dive from the sky at speeds of 200mph and nock out your bird on contact they eat most of it on the ground ripping out intestines and can carry off with the remains.

 

[Shan30]

This really doesn't sound like a hawk to me. Hawks will leave feather bombs but I have never seen them eat an entire animal on site and leave the stomach and contents. They usually take the entire bird (yes I have seen this) or rip off and eat pieces where they are but they seem to actually like the innards. (Sorry for the image)

Honestly my first reaction was cat. Reminds me of exactly how I find a robin after my big fella snacks on it.

Sorry about your chick

 

[maxpedley]

Falcons are defiantly something to worry about , falcons will get your chickens just like hawks and owls. falcons dive from the sky at speeds of 200mph and nock out your bird on contact they eat most of it on the ground ripping out intestines and can carry off with the remains.

nonsense. You couldnt be more wrong. Falcons stoop as it is technically known, usually no more that 10 metres at small birds, such as passerines and the like. They would not risk the chance of stooping to close to the ground. it could be catastrophic for the bird. Exception are peregrines whiuch do have large stoops but these will never attack anything on the ground. They usually aim for pigeons ans small duck species. Then you have gyr falcons and seeing as how they are in the far north they are nothing to worry about, although they maybe able to take a small bantam as they hunt mainly young rabbits, hares and lemmings, but once again small birds makes up most of its diet. Then the kestrel which hunts small mice, passerines and large insects. They do hunt for animals on the ground but if you think they could kill a chicken you must be mad.Finally hobbies and merlins which at about 2 thirds the size of a kestrel the only thing they hunt is large flying insects, ver small birds and small mice. So actually no , apart from the gyr falcon which when highly hungry may take a small bantam, falcons would not take your chickens!!!!!!!!

 

[maxpedley]

Oh and I forgot, To think the largest falcons get toaround 1 kilo the thought of them carrying a hen off is laughable

 

[JessyGii]

I have Peregrine Falcons all over my area and I have watched them dive down and hit my birds and another time one ended up gutted just like this. I don't think I am wrong about the falcons..

 

[Mrs Clutterbuck]

Thanks heaps for the info guys. I'm now concerned about Owls now as I do hear them in the night. For now I'm pretty sure this was the Swamp Harrier AKA in these parts as a Hawk. I did a bit of research of photos and have matched up the feather I found to the inside wing feather of this big guy. Having checked out the photos I recognised him as the one I saw perched on top of my brooder one of the days before the incident.
It was so much easier raising suburban chickens, I only ever lost one from old age back in town! Since we've moved I've lost all of my last lot of chicks, this most recent chick and our pet rabbit. Most just vanished.

I will now be searching threads for good ways to protect my flock.

 

[maxpedley]

I have Peregrine Falcons all over my area and I have watched them dive down and hit my birds and another time one ended up gutted just like this. I don't think I am wrong about the falcons..

Highly doubt it seen as how it dosent happen. I have studied hawks and falcons for hyears so I am sure I know just alittle bit more than you actually. A perigrine falcon will only stoop onto flying prey> No ifs. It is too dangerous for the bird to stoop onto stationary targets on the ground. Think off this. 9 out of 10 falcon attacks are unsuccesfull so if they miss the chicken they would be travelling 200 mph into the ground and the bird knows this. If it was stooping onto your chickens in this fashion it would either be a superbird or dead.

 

[maxpedley]

Thanks heaps for the info guys. I'm now concerned about Owls now as I do hear them in the night. For now I'm pretty sure this was the Swamp Harrier AKA in these parts as a Hawk. I did a bit of research of photos and have matched up the feather I found to the inside wing feather of this big guy. Having checked out the photos I recognised him as the one I saw perched on top of my brooder one of the days before the incident.
It was so much easier raising suburban chickens, I only ever lost one from old age back in town! Since we've moved I've lost all of my last lot of chicks, this most recent chick and our pet rabbit. Most just vanished.

I will now be searching threads for good ways to protect my flock.

Both harriers and owls will hunt chickens. Harriers are so called because of their ability to hunt hares on the ground so they would find a chicken relatively easy unfortunately