Author Topic: what animal would kill a hawk?  (Read 25050 times)

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what animal would kill a hawk?
« on: May 09, 2008, 11:09:55 PM »
a week or two ago I noticed I haven't seen the one particular hawk in our neighborhood anymore. yesterday I found what I think is its leg in our back yard. (white feathers, large claws, about 8" long total)

what animal could/would take out a hawk?

back in febuary I saw a great grey owl the size of a 747 in the very early morning on the way to work but I don't think an owl would take him out. seems too big of a prey for him. he mostly ate only small squirrels (yay!). I haven't seen him since then.

I have now noticed we have a few very large black colored birds around here now, I can't tell if they are ravens or crows, but they are very large. they have been occupying the space our hawk used to sit in.

So, who would take him out?

-Mark

Offline longislandhunter

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RE: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2008, 12:24:27 AM »


I would assume perhaps a fox or coyote would be capable of killing a hawk, although I've really never heard of such an event personally. Then again perhaps the bird became injured somehow, died and became food for some scavenger such as a raccoon??? To bad in either case, beautiful birds,,,, hate to see one die for any reason....



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Offline PeakChick

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RE: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2008, 12:49:18 AM »
That is very curious. I have seen crows taunting a Red Tailed hawk, and (I assume) trying to chase it out of "their" territory, but I'm not sure they could take one in a fair match.
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Offline Gene_SC

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Re: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2008, 01:12:50 AM »
Maybe some kid in  your neighborhood owns a pellet rifle.. That would be a shame.


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Offline daved

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RE: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2008, 02:12:54 AM »
Don't know if you have them in your area, but Great Horned owls will take a hawk, even a large one.  And the smaller ones will take smaller hawks and falcons.  The hawks are at their worst when the owls are at their best, vision wise, and since they frequently compete for the same prey, the owls seem to go out of their way to kill hawks in their territory.  Power lines are the other big killers of raptors of all types, most overhead lines are uninsulated, and several have wing spans sufficient to touch line to line.  Feathers are a pretty good insulator, but only if their dry.  Later.

Dave

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Re: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2008, 04:47:38 AM »
it really is a shame. I miss seeing that hawk, if that is what this leg was from. I need to do some more research just to be 100% positive, but he is the only one I haven't seen in awhile.

I miss how it always looked like he was "standing gaurd" over my back yard from the tallest oak.

I know many others here have pellet rifles, but we are squirrel hunters in this area (tons of oak trees, the damage done to our landscaping is amazingly horrible).

Can't think of anyone off-hand that would want to get rid of a hawk..........I hope that isn't what happened.

-Mark

Offline Progun

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Re: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2008, 06:18:48 AM »
Mark, several years ago a Red-Tailed  Hawk exploded  on my windshield as it was diving for a quail. I was going about 60 mph at the time and it sounded like a gunshot went off inside the car. I was covered in broken glass, blood and feathers.Hawks that live near residential areas sometimes get hit by cars as they are chasing and diving at small birds,etc. Don't know that this is what happened to "your" hawk but it is one possibility.Not to worry though, another one will soon fill the niche.

Offline shadow

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Re: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2008, 08:02:21 AM »
All of the above lol. As said he may have been ill and fallen prey to another varment  and owl's can take , seen it myself. Hopefully it wasn't shot.:( Ed
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Offline only1harry

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RE: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2008, 12:15:26 PM »
A big owl can certainly take a small or regular sized hawk especially at night because they have excellent night vision and can surprise the hawk in its nest, etc.  After all the owl competes with hawks for some of the food and wouldn't mind taking out its competitors.

Another animal that could sneak up on a hawk is the bobcat but usually only at the time the hawk has caught something on the ground or while feeding on a larger animal like rabbit, etc. before it attempts to pick it up and fly away.  My friend's father used to have a log cabin deep in the woods on a hill and a couple of times they caught a glimse of a bobcat but more often than not they found its paw prints.  One day during a deer hunt they came upon feathers and a hawk leg with big claws and bob cat paw prints all around.  His dad was a great tracker and could identify white tail deer from mule deer and all kinds of animal foot prints and even tell you approximately how large or heavy the animal was.
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Offline crazy4salmon

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RE: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2008, 12:24:04 PM »
I know that crows hate owls, because they prey on the crows at night. I would bet it would be in an owls best interests to get rid of another raptor in his territory.

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Re: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #10 on: May 12, 2008, 01:22:11 AM »
right now the finger poiting in the neighborhood is going towards the new crows, but that is all really just guessing.

does anyone have a link to some sort of claw indentification page? a place where I can look at different views and know exactly what I am dealing with?

the bird link on the boards homepage doesn't really show claws.

-Mark

Offline Big_Bill

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RE: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #11 on: May 12, 2008, 03:50:15 AM »


There are three other possibilities that I did not see mentioned,



One: That this bird is old and died of natural causes ?



Two: Raptors have bazaar breeding rituals of spiraling down from great heights as they mate, I have read that some do not come out of this ritual alive, or unharmed.



Three: Raptors are very territorial and defend their territory, even too the death. When the young reach a certain age, the parents will drive away, and even kill them if they refuse to leave.



I hope this helps, just three other possibilities to consider.



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Re: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #12 on: May 12, 2008, 07:03:47 AM »
I am not ruling anything out at this point, just trying to narrow down what would do it for my own information. I've just never seen this happen before.

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Re: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #13 on: May 12, 2008, 01:38:00 PM »
as an update, I came home from work today and found the squirrel I got last night torn to shreds (literally, everything internal was out and all over) behind the garden shed......but I had left him next to the garage when I got him.

Something is really tearing critters up around here. at this point it could really be anything.........ferral cat, crows............I suppose now the leg I found could have been dragged into my yard from anywhere else.

Time to ask the neighbors again if they have seen anything (parts) in their yards recently.

-Mark

Offline Gamo X-Ring Shooter

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Re: what animal would kill a hawk?
« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2008, 11:02:03 AM »
that's sad that your hawk disappeared :(

Initially I probably won't have said anything but now that you mention have your squirrel taken and other small animals getting torn to bits its just my 2 cents but you might be looking at a coyote or red fox.

Right now I've got that problem in my neighborhood.  At first people's cats and small dogs were disappearing.  Then one morning I woke to find the carcass of my neighbor's cat in my front yard torn to bits.  A few days later I found a fawn torn to bits in the woods.  Then I started finding duck heads and wings all over the woods which was strange because the nearest lake is like 3 miles away.  It didn't take me long to find an actually den and set up a game camera.  We've got red foxes and quiet a few.  If they can take out ducks like I've been seeing it wouldn't surprise me if they could do the same to a hawk if they caught it off guard.

Brian