Hen Intuition
As dusk approached, I was watching the hens from my kitchen window when suddenly a raptor flew out of the woods and perched in the tree directly over the coop. The hens instinctively stood as still as statues while the raptor lingered there. With my binoculars I determined it was a Merlin. A small compact falcon, the length of a blue jay.
My bird feeding station attracts all kinds of birds, including birds of prey.
The hens intuition tells them a large bird such as a crow is of no threat to them, but even a small bird of prey sets off danger alarms.