CLOSED: Can Anyone Tell Me What Type of Hawk This Is?

Can anybody tell me what type of hawk this is? He's up at the northern end of lower Michigan. His entire undersides (belly and wings) is mostly white. He's a cool bird, but has just taken up sitting around my yard and picking off my chickens... about 20 or so, so far this summer. My yard looks like a battleground with piles of feathers everywhere.

It's pretty cool, when he has one of my chickens, I can walk right up on him and he won't leave the chicken... I can walk up to within a couple feet of him, then he just tries to hop away dragging the chicken... I could grab him if I wanted to, but that doesn't look like too good of an idea, he looks pretty pissed at me.

Any ideas to keep him away from the yard and chickens... I chase him away constantly, but obviously can't do that full time... Don't know if it's legal to kill a hawk or not, but hate to do that, he's such a cool bird... but hate to keep feeding him my chickens either...

I'll leave the ID to another. It resembles either a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk (They do not have red tail feathers until they are older), or Broad-winged.

As a chicken owner, you need to work at protecting your livestock from predators. We lost one duck because we didn't think there'd be daytime predators. We knew about the critters at night, so put them away in the evening. We learned and protected them to the best of our ability, even if it meant they could not roam freely as often. It is not the animal's fault, they are looking for food when they are hungry and in your case, they found a handy source. It is not legal to kill a hawk without a permit.

We've had Northern Harriers begin to fly low over the yard in search of a meal. They normally do not prey after ducks, but will when their preferred food is scarce. They are one of my favorite raptors, so it was interesting to have them come so close. We like our ducks, so would go outside and the Harrier would move on.

Here is one site that gives several suggestions.
http://www.darkbrownegglayers.com/chicken-predators-protect-your-poultry-from-predators/

I never realized a Red-tailed hawk could be so white on their underside and face... I looked at Google images, and there are some that look just like it... so you're probably right and it is a young bird...

Luckily, knock on wood, it hasn't messed with my ducks... but being Pekin, they are as big (or bigger) as he is, and they stay on the water if he is around... so he choses the easier route with the chickens...

I do lock the chickens in the barn at night, so maybe I'll try just keeping them in the barn for a couple days and see if he moves on... hopefully it's about time for him to head south for the winter.

I like my ducks too, but dang they're a pain in the butt... I can't even peak around the edge of my house and they see me immediately, even from a hundred yards away, and come running quacking their heads off... then follow me every step I make anywhere around the property, walking between my feet, under my feet, just ahead of my feet... always figuring I'll find some food somewhere to throw to them... The problem with them is that periodically it seems they decide that they like the taste of my water lilies or roses. A pain, but I'd be lost around here without them.

I'd say Red-tailed Hawk, juvenile. Broad-winged is probably too small to tackle a chicken.

A roof of chicken wire over their pen should stop it from getting any.

Resin

Well, these are free range... I keep a few acres mowed around my house, barn and pond and they just wander all over it, plus the woods and brush around that... I don't keep them for anything like meat or eggs (although I get more than I know what to do with)... I just like watching them and the ducks running around my yard.... I keep them in a barn at night, and never had any problems during the day until this hawk started hanging out... previous problems have all been raccoons, possums, skunks, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, etc etc trying to get them at night...

Oh, my! You are right about the ducks being a pain. Hahaha. Do you have any toe biters? But for the most part, it was one of my sons that was "Mama Duck". Well, he babied them and pulled them around in a wagon when we had our first two. We learned Pekins really like cherry tomatoes.

I've told people I am not going to be that old lady that hordes cats, but I sure just may end up being known as that crazy duck lady. They are so fun to have around. The eggs... we ended up freezing them after beating to use for baking. I'd put them in containers labelled with how many there are. We are down to one duck now and she was my favorite, but she's too old to lay any more.

The children are talking about wanting chickens and rabbits, so I sure do not know what kind of zoo we'll end up with.

Just for the record, I have attached a picture from
http://sdakotabirds.com/species_photos/raptors/red_tailed_hawk_2.htm
that looks just like the hawk I'm dealing with... the photographer identified it as a red-tailed hawk, and I'm sure he, as well as you folks, know much better than I do. I never would have figured a red-tailed hawk could be so white, have white in the face, no red tail feathers, etc etc...

I just got rid of our rabbits... to much wildlife around me to have to worry about keeping something I was keeping caged... cleaning cages, worrying about food and water, etc... I throw some food to the chickens, ducks, fish, etc everyday, but just for the fun of it and not because I have to. You'll enjoy the chickens also... they'll follow you around just like ducks... it's a pain trying to keep them alive though, seems like they are every things list of favorite snacks... I've lost more than I can count, always battling something. I even started locking them in my barn and had something ( a fox I presume) dig a tunnel over night down under the wall of the barn, went in and killed a bunch and drug them out thru the tunnel and left them all over my yard (I probably scared him off in the middle of his feast)... pretty upsetting. If it's not dealing with something that wants to kill them, it's the skunks and possums and everything else that will do anything to get in to get their eggs... I had a big coyote and a skunk both hanging around the barn last night when I went out to close them in and had to chase both away... It's just a good thing they reproduce so fast and easy... one hen just hatched a dozen babies, and another is now sitting on a nest of two dozen eggs, so will have a bunch more soon. I do my best to protect them, but it's inevitable that something around here will get at least half of them sooner or later...

I have never gotten any duck eggs for some reason (the ducks are about a year and a half old). Something else is probably finding their eggs before I do. I do see eggs laying out in the pond under several feet of water... I figure the ducks are just too stupid, and swim around thinking they have to fart, and then all of a sudden it's 'oops, darn, lost another...'

Yes, ducks seem to lay their eggs any ol' place. When we had several, we'd have to hunt all over the coop to find them. They got into the habit of laying in the mornings, so this made it easy. They stopped laying consistently in 2012 sometime, but we'd find a surprise now and again. And they had no schedule whatsoever.

Look at our Khaki Campbell. She was just about to lay an egg after her sister did. This was late afternoon. We had such a laugh over this.

The tunnel digging sounds like a weasel. Maybe? They tend to kill a bunch, but not eat everything. They prefer rats, but when rats are scarce, they find other things. Someone told me that they had a weasel get their chickens but hid them within the walls of their coop. I think foxes would eat what they kill.?? I am not an expert in this, but vaguely remember a tid bit here and there.

Oh, here is a Red-tailed Hawk. If it was not part of a HawkWatch presentation, I would not have ever guessed because it does not have the "belly band". This is an old one, about 24 years old.

Oh great, thanks, give me another to worry about :-)
I've never seen a weasel round here... but I guess that doesn't mean it couldn't be... it was weird that dead chickens (probably 6 or so) were drug all over the yard, but not eaten... I figured I interrupted him in the process, but still doesn't answer why he wouldn't have just grabbed one and eaten it... kept going back in and getting others... but the hole that was dug was quite a bit bigger than a weasel would have probably dug (I could probably have fit a basketball thru the hole).

I've attached a couple pictures of red-tailed hawks that my brother took... their head, face, and eyes look nothing like mine... that's why I've been so confused.

Does anyone know if there is much of a difference between male and female? Of is it all just an age thing? But these my brother took (with an obvious red tail) look nothing like the last picture I posted that was identified as a red tailed...

I just remembered something... eye color. In hawks, they are light colored when young, but darken as they age.

If you want to be really confused, I could send you links about all the different color morphs of Red-tailed Hawks. We are still hoping to see the so-called Krider's Red-tailed some day. :) This is a lighter morph, but we've seen the darker morphs and the "standard" Eastern Red-taileds.

The differences between the males and females would be minimal as their field markings would be the same, but the females are larger than males.

I found this on a chicken site about minks:

"They are known for their propensity to kill every chicken and bird in an area or pen. However, minks do not eat every chicken they prey on. They only want to drink the blood of their prey, ... "

They will dig holes to get to chickens, but I cannot find how big of holes. I would not think they'd dig them as big as you found.

Hiya - Your bird is a juvenile Broad-winged Hawk. As you will note, the entire front of the bird is streaked. Red-tailed Hawks are not. They have what's referred to as a "belly-band" of streaking across the belly area, and have no streaking above or below it (maybe a little below, on a juvenile). (Don't know about the other smaller pictures from Chillybean there) - eye color varies, and is not the best field mark.

As you will also note, your bird has an all white throat, and variable streaking from there all the way down the front, hence a juvenile Broad-winged. Also, the back has some mottling, but unbarred secondary coverts (back of wings, the lowest part of wings when perched). Also, the Red-tailed has a pale panel encompassing the inner primaries, dark leading edge to inner wing, and dark comma at tips of primary coverts. The Broad-winged is not edged with a pale panel on the edge of the inner primaries. The voice of the Broad-winged is an extremely high pitched and drawn out whistle.

As mentioned above, a weasel or a mink will kill without eating prey. So will a skunk.

My best advice to you is to get a dog to guard your flocks. The better natured the dog, the better. I'd suggest a young dog, or an older dog that's used to being around domestic birds. I had a mellow German Shepherd. The chickens had been in a chicken yard, and she was used to them being here, and knew I didn't want her to mess with them. Well, they started getting out, and she just got used to them being around. So, the chickens trained her. She was such a good dog, and I also trained her to leave the rabbits and squirrels alone. But she'd go after a rat or a snake. I think a large dog would be a great protection, as, by instinct, it would go after a predator attacking a screaming chicken.

Yes, is is illegal to kill any wild bird, or disturb its nest or babies, or even mess with their feathers! (although I don't think the feathers of a yard bird is any big deal) The laws on predatory birds are quite stringent. Any eagle, hawk, owl, etc. carries a fine of $10,000 plus prison time, so that is a very serious matter. So if the dog chases the bird away, no problem!

Geez, I was referring to the second photo. The third photo does look like a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk. You may have a few hawks out there! The second picture shows streaking in the front. The third picture shows on the belly band.