Hawks are birds that are classified as carnivores and they feed on other animals. This makes an environment that has many small animals, birds or pets a favorite spot for the hawks to hang around. They may hang around in big numbers from ten going up or you may find a single hawk hanging around. Hawks are very dangerous especially to domestic birds and small sized pets. It is therefore important to make sure that your pets and birds are safe when you see the hawks are staying around your house. While these hawks can be disastrous to stay around, they also provide a balance to the food chain.
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What Attracts Hawks To Hang Around Your House
Hawks do not just stay around a house for nothing. There are some reasons that every house owner should know that attract hawks to hang around their houses. This manly results in conflict with many home owners regardless of the benefits they get from having hawks around their houses like eating of snakes, rats and rodents.
Food Source
One of the reasons why hawks will hang around your house is because of availability of food for them. Hawks being carnivorous birds will tend to stay around houses where there are small birds and pets for their meat. Small birds like chickens, pigeon are a good source of meat for the hawks and they will always hang around any house that has these birds. Hawks have a good eye sight for their prey and can attack with great speed. Small home owned pets like cats, small dogs and even home owned animals like rabbits all attracts hawks around a house.
Many houses have back yards and dump places where food leftovers are thrown away. These areas attract small birds looking for food making your house a good hunting ground for hawks. Hawks usually hang around houses with back feeders hunting for these small birds. Hawks are very patient when hunting and can hang around a house for more than three hours waiting for their prey.
Nesting And Mating
This is another reason why hawks may stay around your house. If your house is in the bushy areas where the hawks had their nests you will discover that they may hang around the area for mating purposes. They do this when they are nesting and mating to protect their young ones from other intruders. Also the hawks may hang around to protect their nest. Research has it that hawks form lifetime mating partners and though they do not stay together during mating period they will always stick together and hence you may see them hanging around your house.
Protecting Their Territory
Hawks are also know to stay around a place for territorial protection. Naturally hawks do not migrate from one place to another always and they are very protective territorial birds. If your house is located within or close to their territory, you may find the hawks hanging around your house. Hawks protects their territory even from other hawks.
Can I Kill Hawks For Hanging Around My House
Hawks being animal eating birds makes conflict with many house owners inevitable. They will definitely get many house owners angry for losing their beloved birds and pets. Instead of constantly keeping check and chase away the hawks, some may resort to killing of the hawks to get rid of this problem. This raises the question of whether it is legal to kill the hawks or not. It is important to highlight that all hawks are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. These laws makes it an offense for anyone to capture, kill and be in possession of these birds without a permit. Capturing or killing of hawks is a violation of the treat and as such the person who kills or is found in possession without a permit faces judiciary discipline.
How To Chase Hawks Away
The most definite way of keeping hawks away from hanging around you house is by making sure that your house is not a source of food for the hawks. There are many methods to achieve this. One may need to erect durable fenced enclosures for their pets and domestic birds. Hawks do not stay for a long period where they cannot find food. If the hawks after some time realize that they cannot access their prey they will move away. You may also need to chase away small birds by throwing your food remains in a bin and keep it closed. As long these small birds do not play around your house chances are high even the hawks will not hang around your house.
Secondly, check and see if the hawks have a nest close to your house. In case they do not have offspring you may need to scare them away using short gun or other various ways. You simply have to shoot in the direction of the hawks but not shoot them. In case they have offspring you may need to call the relevant authorities trained and permitted to catch and relocate the hawks. The other option would be to leave the hawks until their offspring is old enough to fly and scare them away. After all the hawks can help get rid of some unwanted pests and rodents around your house. You may need to destroy their nest when the young ones can fly to chase them away. Lastly, to chase hawks away you need to get rid of very large trees as these are a favorite spot for their nesting. However you should seek approval from your local environmental agencies to do this. Many local environmental authorities prohibit cutting down of trees without approval or special permit.
Conclusion
Having hawks hanging around your house can result in many problems mainly loss of your pets and domestic birds as these are the main pull factors. However capturing or killing of hawks is not recommended. It is advisable for anyone facing such challenges to apply the methods discussed above or consult relevant authorities to assist in a legal way.