What might be happening here?

I have three birdbaths fairly near to each other in the backyard, and in summers past, ravens have been known to marinate dead rats until tender in them. I know this, because they sit on the fence or along the roofline and stare at me in disapproval when I remove said rats (a process which delights my dogs).

This year, I've found no rats, but four times in the past six weeks I've found a headless bird either marinating in the birdbath or lying very near to it. Sparrows twice, juvenile house finches twice. Always headless, the bodies otherwise unviolated.

Any idea what is killing these birds in the first place? Local cats, with the ravens batting clean-up or owls or ...? My dogs are not bird-aggressive (though the smell of dead rat is so delightful to them). It's an old neighborhood with little room / sightline for soaring birds of prey. It's strange I never find the ravaged bodies -- always the intact bird, without a head.

Makes me sad, every time. My little birdy graveyard will soon have to expand, if this keeps up. Part of nature's natural cycle, I'm sure, but I don't love it cycling in my "peace" garden! :-) I'd at least like to understand what's going on.

Any ideas?

Grief, what a story!

I'd suspect cats (which do often behead their prey), with ravens then salvaging the corpses afterwards (they go more for carrion than live prey - chances are, the rats might have been roadkill before they reached you).

Resin

Definitely yes on rats as roadkill -- they have all been pressed flat as pansies for bookmarks by the time they arrive in my birdbath.



This message was edited Jun 9, 2007 5:16 PM

Wow, thats weird and disgusting.

I have chicken marinating right now (not in the bird bath of course).

Think I'm losing my appetite!

I'm so sorry your going through this.

Susannah - I recently found a headless body in my bird bath (which is actually a bowl of water sitting on the ground under the bird feeder). It was completely de-furred. I couldn't be sure what it was, but it looked to me like a squirrel. I do get lots of squirrels in my yard because I feed them. I do have hawks and just recently discovered that I also have several owls in my neighborhood. I found it in the bird bath in the morning when I went out to put seed in the feeders. Most squirrels are sleeping at night. And so do hawks. Kind of has me stumped on how this happened. Though I am now thinking that it was probably an owl. Domestic animals can't get into my backyard. Since this was left in the water, I would have to say it was a bird of prey. I didn't know until I read you thread that they would drop dead rodents in water to marinate them. Very interesting thread!!

Edited to add: I say squirrels because of the small tuff of fluffy fur on the end of the tail. It was not flatten either such as road kill. Looked like a perfectly "good" body with no head or fur. And yes! It was sooooooooooo gross!!! I threw it over the fence for whatever to finish it off. :-P~~~~

This message was edited Jun 10, 2007 7:53 AM

Weirdness, ain't it?

Our local ravens marinate their dinners all the time. :-/ Though we live in an old neighborhood, ca. 1912 (old for Dallas), we live just a few blocks away from a street populated with great restaurants, many of them in old buildings with "patios" on top. During the warmer months, we find all kinds of things in the birdbath -- crawfish, parts of hamburgers, etc. -- it's almost where we can recognize which restaurants the ravens have been foraging by the evidence in the birdbath!

We've never had a headless squirrel, but headless rats, part of a turtle once, and now -- this whole series of headless birds. I'm thinking a local cat and then acquisition by the ravens, but owls may be involved here, too, though I can't imagine an owl discarding dinner for itself or its babies for a raven, and our area is so disturbed by recent house teardowns and new builds, it's not the safest place in the world for an owl to think of nesting.


This message was edited Jun 10, 2007 7:56 AM

I do see what looks like blackbirds (probably ravens) in my bird feeder all the time. I didn't know they would marinate their food like that. Interesting. And the body wasn't in the water that night right after dark as I was out there watering my garden beds until about 9 pm. This happened before the sun came up the next morning because I was out there at that time too to put seed in the feeders as the sun was rising. So it happened over night. Owls, possibly? I just couldn't figure out how they would find a squirrel at night. Usually squirrels are curled up and asleep in their homes after dark. And why would they drop it in the water? I agree that I can't see an owl doing that. It's a mystery to me!