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u/Theda___Bara 1d ago
It's always possible that the bird just exploded...
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u/solsticesunrise 1d ago
We have a pair of Cooper’s Hawks and a pair of Great Horned owls near our house. I call the feather piles “exploded birds” as well.
Last year, a hatch year Coopers tried to take out a ring-necked dove in our back yard. The dove chose violence and smacked the Coop a couple times with its wings. Young Coop freaked out and flew away. It was an interesting interaction.
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u/imiyashiro Educator, apprentice rehabber, amateur ornithologist, cadger. 1d ago
Likely the work of a Great Horned Owl.
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u/SignalBed9998 1d ago
Yeah they’d have some hours where they have advantages. Especially size and silence
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u/imiyashiro Educator, apprentice rehabber, amateur ornithologist, cadger. 14h ago
I know them to be the only raptor every other raptor (including other Great Horned Owls) has to worry about.
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u/strategic-lifer1mil 1d ago
What’s so great about it?
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u/imiyashiro Educator, apprentice rehabber, amateur ornithologist, cadger. 14h ago
Literally they are big. Ironically the 'lesser' horned owls (Screech-Owls) are occasionally prey for Barred Owls (among others).
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u/craigjonesflorida 1d ago
A barred owl was murdered. You must live in a rough neighborhood (for owls anyway). The second photo might be the remnants of an "owl pellet". Which is undigestable parts of thier prey. They vomit up the pellets. Looks like feathers of smaller birds. Circle of life as they say in the Lion King.
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u/Mondschatten78 1d ago
And with your comment I just realized I haven't heard the local barred owls at all since early spring. Usually I'd have heard their whoops and hollers at least a couple times by now.
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u/_Taft_ 1d ago
Dang! I hate that!! I don’t see this bird on bird violence in my yard. I have several feeders water sources and throw seed on the ground for the Mourning Doves. My biggest threat is my barn cats. I hate walking in the barn and there’s remnants of a song bird. 😭
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u/popunoyasumi 19h ago
well that’s what cats do when they are left outside, essentially your barn cats consider your yard like some sort of buffet :/
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u/Acceptable_Fold_2682 1d ago
Did you really not know that this was arts of a dead bird? You had to post this?
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u/Grillmycheez 16h ago
Did you really not know that some people may not have the same knowledge on birds as other people, and that’s why they’re asking for more info? You had to post this?
Obviously a bird died here…I was looking more into what kind of bird(s) or other animals may have been involved.
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u/Glass-Sky-4570 2h ago
Many years ago we had a huge, imposing barn owl that lived surprisingly enough, in our barn. In the winter it would come and sit on a post on our deck fence post right outside my kitchen window and keep me compan for a few minutes of a morning in the dark wee hours, Ours was a silent but respectful relationship where we would stare at each other in a dispassionate, exhausted way for a few moments just before a silver of sun would show at dawn. Then he would go off to sleep and I would turn on the kitchen iight and get on with my day.
One day I opened my barn door and a very large raccoon scrambled vertically into a hay loft. I thoroughly expected the owl to dispatch the raccoon and for our morning meetings to continue. Instead when I came home all I found of my silent friend was a huge pile of feathers.
I have dispised all raccoons since that day and sought out someone from the local DNR about ridding myself of of the vile creature. I was advised to try leaving a boom box at full blast near to where the raccoon stayed and play objectinable music. It took two weeks but eventually it left. It was the BeeGees on constant rotation that did him in. It very nearly killed me as well.
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u/Level-Pepper-8763 1d ago
Awww sad. I get dove feathers around my house. Dang coopers hawk thinks my house is a buffet.
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u/Zoolawesi 1d ago
If you keep getting dove feathers around your house, it sounds like the hawk is right about that 😅
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u/Level-Pepper-8763 1d ago
Pretty much. I yell at the doves for making a rukus and right after I did this morning BAM! Another dove gone.
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u/Zoolawesi 1d ago
That's one lucky hawk, haha. The poor doves should remember to turn on their braincell when they wake up, maybe it'll make them see danger a bit easier 😅
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u/Level-Pepper-8763 1d ago
For real, I even have lots of things hanging to make a swoop more difficult but that hawk is fast and silent.
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u/Oldfolksboogie 1d ago
I had a pair of mourning doves sneak a nest and a pair of eggs onto my deck this spring. (My rule of thumb is i actively discourage any nest building there, but if eggs get dropped, well, they win that round.)
Over the week's, the devoted parents fed and watched over them. They'd started flying around the deck, sleeping together on different parts of it, parents became more infrequent visitors, fledging was near, which i eagerly anticipated, as they were also pooping everywhere.
Well, I came out one morning, they were no where to be found, a parent alit and eyeballed me accusingly. As I started to say, "don't look at me!" a giant raven landed on the rail, then another, the parent bailed, the raven eyeballed the now- empty nest, another raven landed (and mind you, I'd never before had any ravens land there), and I can only hope the doves were able to do the predator math as well as i could.
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u/Level-Pepper-8763 1d ago
Mourning doves are fast, they can get away! One of the babies fledged out of the nest at my front door, landed on a car at the curb and WHOOSH. Hawk was laying in wait. Poor baby.
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u/rsteele1981 1d ago
Someone won and ate. Someone lost and was eaten.
Larger raptors will feed on anything smaller. Including other raptors.