Some time back I posted some pics of a guys house that had crow decoys all in his back yard.. (sorry can't find the post) Well today, I happened to see him outside and stopped asked why. He told me he was raised in the country and now he builds bird houses and puts them all over his yard.. thus raising birds.. and he claims the crow decoys keep the hawks away..
Thanks for the update, Mark. I think he is buying a false sense of security. I'm more of a "duck hunt method" crow hunter vs. a "runner & gunner" and have seen many hawks attack our decoys. It's always fun to wach the surprised hawk's reaction to plastic when he was expecting feathers.
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Hawks attract crows period often screwing up hunts when they pursue the live hawk a few hundred yards away in the sky or the fields...I watched as a lone crow tried to harass two bald eagles circling well you can guess that lone crow didn't hang around long! Bird houses with occupants such as tree swallows will find them driving crows away. In my area if you got a kingbird in an apple orchard they too will harass crows...including the sparrow hawk or kestrel...grackles and red wing black birds will harass hawks and crows...that is expect a certain few species of hawk such as the accipiters(sharp shinned and Coopers and Goshawks) and the pigeon hawk or "tar tar"...midsized falcon...in fact I saw no bird ever attack one around here....not sure about crows though..generally if they got enough numbers nothing is too big or scary to harass....I read a story of out west somewhere where a flock of crows tried to harass a sasquatch!
When I toured the back yard with the owner +30 mourning dove were feeding on the ground under the feeders.. ( cracked corn and sunflower seed) so the decoys have no effect on dove and the song birds ex: Blue birds and finches don't fear the crows ( decoys). The bird houses provide protection from crows and other predators when they reproduce. The owner said he saw an owl a few weeks ago watching the birds.. I suppose the decoys keep the hawks away.. Only issue I have is the education he is giving the local population of crows.. That I hunt..
