Re: Accipiters and chooks

["David Cook" <>]

What I meant was that I would think that a chicken would be too big for either a Brown Goshawk or Collared Sparrowhawk to fly away with. We had a CS in our garden a couple of years ago that had brought down a Starling - it attempted to fly away with it, but couldn't get off the ground, and ended up dragging it under a bush to eat it. At Yowani golf club, I often see the current season's progeny from the resident Sparrowhawks chasing Sulphur-crested Cockatoos - not, presumably, to acquire lunch, but more as training for the chasing skills and agility required for their real targets.

 

I would think that flightless chooks would be too much of a temptation for a BG or CS to ignore, but has anyone actually seen either species take a chicken and remove it? Having said that, HANZAB states that female BG can take prey up to 2kg and males up to 750g, whereas CS take small birds (<25g), but can take up to 400g. It also states that Gallus gallus is definitely on the menu for BG, but only G.gallus chicks for the CS. There you go.

 

David