Be Gay Do Crime

the things that ticked me off are 1. the fucking MUSIC. 2. the recorder made no effort to stop it 3. the location the hawk came from is off-screen. it looks like it was tossed down on to the chicken, and although nothing got hurt, this is needless endangerment of both the chicken, chicks, and the hawk. I wouldn’t be surprised if this came from one of those fake rescue YouTube channels. this is ridiculously cruel.

2. Wings are not clipped, it’s clearly molting

3. It wasn’t tossed, the shadow shows it coming out of a dive maneuver before the hawk itself comes into frame

4. If it had been tossed, it wouldn’t be aiming for one of the chicks in particular.

Looks like an inexperienced young predator bit off more than it could chew and panicked. Taking off from the ground isn’t that easy, especially while your head feathers are getting yanked out and you’re being beaten by wings, it was trying to get some distance before flying upwards and it didn’t work out well.

One could argue it’s suspicious that the person just happened to be filming at the right moment and calmly captured the whole encounter instead of flailing the camera around, yelling, or intervening, but that’s hardly proof of anything. Some people are just unflappable.

and here is a screenshot of the channels most recent uploads:

I was right on the mark: it’s one of those fake rescue channels done for easy money. there are countless of these going around, and I had two other videos on different channels featuring (potentially) the same bird. this should be the end of this response as it’s self explanatory but I’ll go into more detail in case people aren’t aware. these videos are blatently staged, often reusing the same animals and showcasing completely improbable circumstances. the situation of a hawk diving on chickens is not particularly unusual so it makes sense nobody would bat an eye, but it doesn’t change the fact that that bird was not diving, it was either tossed or trying to come down from a higher perch. either way, the bird is incapable of flying, either because of a poor moult, or more likely, intentional tampering.

moulted feathers is one thing, but the existing feathers are extremely damaged. not only that, but throughout the video, the bird is clearly in distress, mouth wide open with tongue sticking out. it is either overheating, extremely stressed out, or both. the poor feather condition also implies heavy handling.

This video is 100% staged, as is every other video on this channel, but in a situation where a domestic animal is under attack, who the fuck sits and records it up to 5 minutes following, and then edits it and adds dramatic music in post? it’s one thing if it’s wild animals doing wild animal things, but this is a (poorly kept not wild) young crested hawk-eagle and chickens. and again, for any doubts, the same species if not individual is featured in several other videos doing similar shit being thrown at defensive chickens for quick clicks, such as this one, where there is even less effort made to hide the fact this bird has no fucking wing feathers anymore (hawks do not have simultaneous moults)

and, for comparison, a healthy crested hawk-eagle, with normal wings: