What can I feed a hawk to keep him from eating smaller birds?
2007-10-09 16:32:41 · 11 answers · asked by micwingman 2 in Pets ➔ Birds
Unless you want to capture small rodents to feed the hawk, you are better off to let nature take it's course.
A wild bird should not have food offered by humans or they will become too dependent and unable to fend for themselves.
If they are being fed because severe weather has interfered with their ability to find prey, that is a different story.
2007-10-09 16:44:23 · answer #1 · answered by Sue F 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Feeding Hawks
2016-12-10 12:18:16 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can not feed a hawk anything. They are predators, hunters. They are wild animals. They do not accept food from a human's hand or from a bird feeder.
Some animals are vegetarians, some are carnivores (meat eaters). You can not change this. You can no more stop a hawk from eating smaller birds than you can stop a fox from eating bunnies, or a lion from eating gazelles. It is their food source, the things they are designed to eat. They are not like horses and cows and rabbits, that only graze on grasses and other vegetation.
And please remember, if you are tempted to harm the hawk in order to "protect" the other birds, that would be illegal. All native migratory species (including the hawk) are protected under federal law (The Migratory Bird Treaty Act) and it is a federal offense to harm one.
2007-10-10 02:45:41 · answer #3 · answered by margecutter 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I had almost the same problem last year. I stopped feeding the birds for about a week. The hawk has figured out that your bird feeder is an easy way to get its meals. If there are no birds around, it will go find somewhere else to feed. I also put my bird feeder near bushes and trees so the birds have somewhere to hide when the hawk swoops down. Hope this helps.
2016-03-13 07:55:22 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
He's a Hawk. He eats small birds naturally. Nothing you do will stop this.
You should feed him mice and chunks of raw meat sometimes too. This will vary his diet and may keep him of the small birds while he is not hungry.
2007-10-09 20:03:47 · answer #5 · answered by G 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
He will still eat the smaller birds, no matter what you do. It's what hawks do.
2007-10-09 16:44:15 · answer #6 · answered by G.V. 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nothing. Hawks naturally prey on smaller birds and mammals. You shouldn't even attempt to get them to eat anything else. They're predators and carnivores and you can't make them anything else.
2007-10-09 16:37:38 · answer #7 · answered by Resident Heretic 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Surely you are joking.
Are you serious in trying to keep a predator from doing what it evolved to do over millions of years?
You need to get a grip on reality son.
Of course if you are serious, then you are the perfect poster child for what is wrong with the world today, people trying to meddle in nature's affairs.
I really hope you are just joking in which case you need to work on that too.
2007-10-09 18:29:27 · answer #8 · answered by Mimik 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You don't happen to have any nice, juicy RATS running around your House by any chance- DO YOU??! ...No? -Aw, that's too bad..! -Cuz next to birds, THOSE are a Hawks FAVORITE prey... :)
2007-10-09 16:44:43 · answer #9 · answered by Joseph, II 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If you absolutely have to...mice. Other than that you should be feeding him exactly what he needs which includes small birds, small mammals and sometimes fish.
2007-10-09 16:40:08 · answer #10 · answered by broken angel 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋