The Poultry Keeper

Sparklepeeps · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1960 Location: Cheshire

Yesterday we found a headless pigeon in the garden, only a small amount of it eaten, but heavily plucked with the damn feathers all over the lawn. We assumed this was a fox due to the decapitation. We know there are plenty of foxes around, but even after having the chickens for sometime now, this is the first bit of evidence that we have ever come across that a fox has visited us.

However, I noticed today that stuck to the pine needles high in the large tree above where we found the pigeon there were loads of feathers! So not a fox after all! Any idea what it might have been?

We definitely have plenty of buzzards in the area.

CP · Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 1:36 am Post subject:

Or a sparrowhawk. Wink

AFAIK if the feathers have been plucked it's been killed by a bird, if they are bitten off, it's a fox. Wink

Gilly C · Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 2620 Location: South Cumbria

We have Peregrines here, pigeon is their favourite food and there is always a heap of feathers and sometimes rings from racing pigeons below the nest

mojo · Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 6:14 pm Post subject:

buzzards dont often take any thing as big as pidgeon they prefer small animals even insrcts etc but sparrowhawks and peregrines will take two or three a day given the chance.........kids plastic windmills set about 6 ft high where they can flash and whir have been found to deter raptors

Sparklepeeps · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1960 Location: Cheshire

How about an owl?...do they go for other birds? (sorry if thats a very very silly question). What ever it was, it would have been very close to the house and in prime view. Maybe it will revisit.

mojo · Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 4:36 pm Post subject:

i think owl might take a chick but not anything bigger..................watch for birds about the place....try to see wing shape and colour as it will help decide the bird

Spana · Joined: 30 Apr 2005 Posts: 2240 Location: North Cornwall

Do Sparrow Hawks and the such like decapitate. Found a little call duck the other morning, feathers plucked from the breast but head missing. The breast had completely gone leaving the breast bone clean. All its giblets had gone as well but the wings were untouched, fox rips these off usually. Thought at first it must be fox jumping the electric netting again, but after reading this I'm wondering Confused

Do raptors decapitate, anyone know for sure Confused

mojo · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 5:51 pm Post subject:

yep they do have seen them do it................they then tend to tear breast open and eat contents........but raptors often eat carrion as well and bussards dont usually attack any thing very bigger than mole sized........sparrowhawks are the pidgeon killers extrordinaire...........to see one take one out of the air is a sight natures saves for special occasions.......owls (unless eagle owls) are rodent and small mammel killers

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3457 Location: Monmouthshire

Mojo, I'm afraid you are wrong about the size stock a buzzard will take. To date I have driven one off a silkie (which died anyway) two adult cream legbar hens, (one dead and the other I had to cull) and had to revive a cream legbar breeding cock which he'd found too heavy to carry off so dropped from the branch he'd reached. That survived and bred. This year I have had one Cream legbar hen who escaped with a dislocated wing so had to be culled anyway. I don't know why they pick on the Cream Legbars, but having seen it happen, know it's buzzards.

fairislefaerie · Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Posts: 542

Ive seen buzzards take new born lambs away with relative ease, it depends how hungry they are & how many chicks they themselves are feeding as to what they will hunt.

Angela

Sparklepeeps · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1960 Location: Cheshire

Oh My Word that is soooo scarey, my 8 month old cat is quite a slim looking thing, I have always worried about the Buzzards over head when he is out and about in the garden.

I saw a buzzard flying past the houses this morning, about 1 metre away from the roof tops past all the bedroom windows, so they are obviously not fazed by humans.

mojo · Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 8:10 am Post subject:

maybe cause its so rural here the buzzards dont need to hunt big stuff.......... voles/mices etc by the thousands ...........but will take special notice when birdwatching now...........thanks

Stormrider · Joined: 03 Jun 2007 Posts: 4

This attack is definately a sparrowhawk. A buzzard would of most likely have taken the carcass away with it. Sparrowhawks are expert at a quick hit and kill and will almost always strip the breast to the bone. This is the area of maximum meat within a quick time. An owl big enough to make a kill like this would also have carried the kill away.

Th plastic windmill setup might help in detering a raptor, and you can give a try. To be honest the best thing you can do when free ranging is watch your birds and provide them with good cover for them to escape into. Atleast this will give them a fighting chance of escape if it detects something on its way.

STU

tuzo2k · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 209 Location: charente sw france

When in England (Forest of Dean) we had a rogue buzzard that regularly killed chickens - one as big as a Buff Orpington cock. We actually witnessed the kill and managed to save an Ixworth hen which the buzzard was trying to pin down - fortunately the Ixworth was too strong for it and alerted by the screaming we arrived in the nick of time. We have also lost a couple whilst in France, together with some growers. They obviously can't carry the carcass off but they rip out the throat whilst holding the bird down with its weight.