Our Buff Orpington had a scare yesterday from a Red Tail hawk. Thankfully my wife and I were in an area inside our home where we could hear the commotion outside from the other girls, and we were able to save our sweet Sunny. When I heard all the noise, I looked out our window and saw these huge wings on the ground flapping, and upon sliding our door open, the hawk jumped off our hen and flew up to the nearest branch of one of the pine trees. I ran up the yard and waved my hands to scare the hawk, and it flew away, and all I can remember is how large the wing span was. I looked down and there was our precious girl looking hopeless with blood coming out of her mouth and an opening on the side of her neck. I immediately grabbed her and held her in my arms and she seemed to come back to life. I think she was in shock, but it scared the hell out of me! I cleaned her up and everything seems fine today.
I know raccoons are a big threat, as we lost one of our girls in the past year due to these little savages, but the hawk threw a curve ball at me. We browsed a few Youtube videos about hawks and chickens after this happened, and needless to say, the videos were disturbing as we now know that hawks don't just fly down to scoop up their prey, but they actually land and walk right up to the chicken and start terrorizing.
In the aftermath of all this, I assessed the feathers on the ground and where the trail started, and it looks like the hawk landed, ran underneath the bush the chicken was in, and drug her out in an open area to begin trying to eat her. The trail of feathers was the length of about 20 feet from the big batch of feathers from under the bush...unbelievable.
