Broody Hen Eating a Dog Day Cicada

[centrarchid]

This morning as chickens started to stir, I heard a broody hen (with week old chicks) roosting in weed patch start cackling like she was being attacked. I was inside at time so commotion was fairly loud. When I ran outside one dog was sitting by the door and two others were playing in the grass paying the hen no attention. By that time she was making a repeated trilling sound like when killing a small snake or mouse. It took some poking over about 5 minutes before I could see the target of her attention. She had Dog Day Cicada she was pecking and shaking to soften and dismember. Chicks were grabbing rather sizable chunks and running off into weeds to consume their shares. She was making the sound for quite some time.

Maybe time to catch more cicadas to make a video.

 

[aart]

 

[centrarchid]

Not a Dog Day Cicada and a crappy video to boot but part of bigger project that is related and might of interest to some.

This is a female of one of the many types of katyidids / long-horned grasshopper living here. She has major chompers and is a novel find for the chicks. Hen gave one trill before camera crapped out. Chicks also made trilling sound as they attacked the insect in tern. The trilling may have some role getting everyone into mind set that a prey item needs processing and may be hazardous.