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What Bird or Animal is Destroying my Large Sunflowers By Tearing/Rending/Ripping off the Head/Tops?
If it's not enough to have small pretty birds pecking away the sunflower leaves literally down to the skeletal support, like some giant caterpillar (observed directly today). I had never found any insects day or night to explain it—damned birds are doing it.
This is far worse, because the plant is totally ruined; this sunflower variety (Mammoth) does not tend to sprout little crotch flowers as many do when the leading tip is damaged; last year the one destroyed just sat there, as if puzzled and never did anything more.
What’s violently tearing the heads off my sunflowers? This happened once last year to my largest and best sunflower. Now whatever is doing it is back with a vengeance.
Yesterday, my three largest and most vigorous sunflowers (approx heights, 6.5 feet, 5 feet, 4 feet) all had their tops violently ripped off, as shown. And in a curious break in patter, a 4th but much smaller 1.5 foot one was mangled, but at ground level.
- NOT a deer; yard is fenced and no tracks.
- NOT a squirrel; squirrels run off with the heads and make clean cuts and only go for the mature heads with their seeds.
- NOT a skunk or other nighttime critter; happened in mid afternoon.
- NO tracks in soil.
- NO damage to lower trunk, no puncture marks, nothing.
Which makes me think: large bird.
- Head is usually take, or partially eaten.
- Puncture marks always seen 6 to 9 inches below the head, usuallly with sheared/torn branches.
- No signs of chewing, but tearing and maybe pecking.
My best working theory is a crow. With lots of them around, I cannot think of any other bird large and powerful enough to mangle the plants this way.
Update: the next day, the last of 5 large sunflowers was destroyed by around noon; this 5-foot-tall sunflower had been fully intact at 10 AM.
