An Adelaide woman has revealed her backyard chooks were targeted by a bird of prey, which locals believe could belong to a cast of falcons living at an abandoned industrial site.

Key points: A bird of prey targets an Adelaide woman's chickens

A bird of prey targets an Adelaide woman's chickens More hawks and falcons may be seen in the city because of the drought and fewer trees

More hawks and falcons may be seen in the city because of the drought and fewer trees Foxes are a bigger threat to chickens, even in the city

However, experts say foxes are a much bigger threat to suburban chickens than eagles, hawks or peregrine falcons.

Kilkenny resident Emily Mantilla was in her backyard on Saturday when she saw a bird of prey attack her flock of chooks.

Fortunately, it did not manage to get one.

"It swooped in at a really fast speed," Ms Mantilla told ABC Radio Adelaide.

"I just saw this really huge tail behind it and these ginormous talons.

"It just came in and tried to grab one of my chickens."

She said she suspected the bird of prey lived in a nearby abandoned industrial building.

"I was kind of a little bit hysterical because I was in shock and I was really quite concerned for my chickens and also my dog — it's kind of my surrogate son," she said.

A bird of prey over Kilkenny after it targeted chickens owned by Emily Mantilla. ( Supplied: Emily Mantilla )

A local community Facebook group, where Ms Mantilla shared the image, had comments from other community members who said they had spotted a similar bird flying around, as well as headless pigeons in a local park.

Others have spotted baby falcons at the site and believe it could belong to a group of falcons.

No threat to dogs or bigger chickens

Keeping backyard chickens is an increasingly popular hobby.

Birds SA secretary Kate Buckley said there was "no way in the world" a bird would pick up a dog, even a small one like Ms Mantilla's Pomeranian.

"The last thing we want is people killing these birds because they are no threat to humans at all," Ms Buckley said.

"A bird that size would not pick up a small dog."

She said increased bird of prey sightings in Adelaide could be down to trees being cut down and replaced with buildings.

"They're probably being seen because there's fewer trees," she said.

"They're more visible and vulnerable themselves."

Show chicken breeder Michael Hall said there appeared to be more birds of prey around Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills over the past two years because of the dry conditions.

He said more chickens being attacked could also be down to more people keeping the birds as pets.

However, he said many larger, fully-grown chickens would be too big for birds of prey.

"If the birds are around, they'll knock off anything from a Bantam to a standard-size chicken," he said.

"That's what birds of prey do — eat other birds."

Sorry, this video has expired Baby peregrine falcons high up in an office building in Melbourne. ( ABC News )

Department for Environment and Water species ecologist Jason Van Weenen said brown goshawks had the worst reputation for targeting chickens.

"It tends to be game enough to swoop into backyard settings and things like that and they do feed on chickens, particularly smaller birds," he said.

"Brown goshawks and collared sparrowhawks are two species we get quite commonly in suburban areas and they do come down into a backyard setting."

Foxes a threat to urban poultry

Walkerville vet Andrew Spanner said chooks were generally too big for birds of prey to fly away with and foxes were a bigger culprit in chicken injuries and deaths, even in the city.

"It's not as though they wouldn't have a go from time to time, but it's not normal behaviour," Dr Spanner said.

A brown goshawk after catching a pigeon in the inner Adelaide suburb of Parkside. ( Supplied: Jo Brougham )

"It's probably someone hungry or chancing their luck."

ABC Radio Adelaide listener Graham said he saw a wedge-tailed eagle with a fox in its mouth up a tree and then on the ground in the Adelaide Hills.

"He certainly could carry the fox with ease," Graham, of Echunga, said.

Ms Buckley, from Birds SA, said it was likely the fox was roadkill as wedge-tailed eagles ate carrion and did not live in urban areas.

She agreed that foxes were the biggest threat to chickens.