No, you cannot shoot a hawk on your property. Every native hawk in the United States is protected by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and owning the land where the hawk is perched, nesting, or hunting gives you no exception. That holds true even if the hawk is actively killing your chickens. Penalties reach into six figures and can include jail time.
Why Your Property Rights Don’t Override the Law
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it illegal to kill, capture, hunt, or possess any native migratory bird, and every hawk species found in the country is on the protected list.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 16 – Section 7032eCFR. 50 CFR 10.13 – List of Birds Protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act Red-tailed hawks, Cooper’s hawks, sharp-shinned hawks: all covered. So are their feathers, nests, and eggs. The law applies on public and private land alike, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has enforced it since 1918.
One neighboring point worth knowing: bald and golden eagles carry an extra layer of protection under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.3U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act Golden eagles in particular get mistaken for large hawks. Misidentifying one and shooting it stacks violations under both statutes.
There Is No Self-Defense Exception for Livestock or Pets
This is where most property owners misread the law. If a hawk is diving at your chickens or menacing a small dog, the instinct is to reach for a shotgun and assume the law will side with you. It won’t. The MBTA contains no defense-of-property or defense-of-animals exception.4U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 The statute forbids killing a protected bird “at any time, by any means or in any manner,” and livestock losses do not open a door in that language.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 16 – Section 703
The rules around ground predators can create the wrong intuition here. Some states let landowners kill coyotes or feral hogs threatening livestock without a permit. Hawks are treated differently. If a hawk kills one of your chickens, your legal choices are non-lethal deterrents or a federal depredation permit. Shooting is the option that puts you in federal court.
What Killing a Hawk Actually Costs
A standard MBTA violation is a misdemeanor punishable by up to $15,000 in fines and up to six months in jail.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 16 – Section 707 Under general federal sentencing law, misdemeanor fines can climb to $100,000 for an individual and $200,000 for an organization.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 18 – Section 3571
Killing a hawk with the intent to sell it or its parts is a felony. Felony fines reach up to $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for organizations, with up to two years in prison.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 16 – Section 7076Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 18 – Section 3571
The cost doesn’t stop at fines. Federal law authorizes the government to seize firearms, traps, nets, vehicles, and any other equipment used in the violation.7U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Criminal Provisions of the U.S. Criminal Code (Title 18) and Other Statutes – Section: Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 State wildlife agencies often add their own charges on top of the federal case.
The Only Legal Route to Lethal Control
If hawks are causing ongoing, documented damage, a federal depredation permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the one lawful way to kill or trap one.8U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 3-200-13 Migratory Bird – Depredation These are not issued casually. Before FWS will consider an application, you need documented proof that you tried non-lethal deterrents first, and you’re expected to keep using them after any permit is granted.
The process starts with USDA Wildlife Services at 866-4USDA-WS (866-487-3297). A biologist evaluates your situation, sometimes with a site visit, and produces a Permit Review Form that goes to FWS along with your application, photos of the damage, and evidence of what you’ve already tried.9Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Migratory Bird Depredation Permit Process Approval isn’t automatic. When a permit does issue, it specifies which species can be taken, how many, and by what methods.
For a backyard flock owner who lost one chicken, this process isn’t practical. Depredation permits exist for repeated, documented losses where non-lethal control has genuinely failed. In most backyard cases, the deterrent options work faster and cost less than the paperwork.
What Actually Stops Hawk Attacks
Hawks hunt opportunistically. Making your yard harder to strike usually sends them elsewhere, and none of the following steps require a permit.
Overhead cover is the single most effective change. Hawks need a clear approach to strike, so a run covered with poultry netting or wire fencing shuts down most attacks. If a fully enclosed run isn’t practical, natural cover helps: bushes, shade structures, even a picnic table gives chickens somewhere to dive when a shadow passes overhead.
Layered on top of cover, a few other measures pull their weight:
- Reflective tape, mylar flagging, and predator decoys such as owl effigies discourage hawks from hunting a specific area. Move them every few days because hawks learn to ignore anything stationary.
- Roosters are effective sentinels, sounding alarm calls when raptors appear. Guard dogs also deter aerial predators.
- Remove perching spots near the coop. Dead limbs and fence posts with clean sightlines to your birds make your property attractive; taking them out makes it less so.
If attacks are already happening, the practical sequence is: secure the animals immediately in a covered enclosure, add visual deterrents, document each incident with photos and dates, and call USDA Wildlife Services for an assessment.10Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Wildlife Services Contacts The documentation matters twice over: it helps the biologist recommend the right fix, and if you ever do need a depredation permit, it’s exactly the paper trail FWS requires.
The urge to protect your animals is understandable. The law on shooting a hawk, though, is absolute. A covered run costs a small fraction of a federal wildlife fine, and it stops the losses more reliably than a shotgun that would bring federal agents to your door.