Actually Woody, given half a chance it would come back for the rest.
They kill as much as they can while they can, dead birds don't fly away, but will still be good meals for several days. It's probably why they eat the heads, an injured unconcious(sp) bird may recover but without a head, it's not.
The problem is, penned birds can't get away, and the fox doesn't know when to stop.
Pepsi, I hope your granddaughter doesn't get too upset. I don't think there's any point trying to fool her. Even if you managed to find birds that looked the same, she would probably notice the change in their personalities. I suppose you might be able to convince her that they're traumatised or something, but do you want to tell her that many lies, and more importantly do you really want her to believe them?
I was about that age when the fox got some of our chooks including my favourite, "Blue Ring" so called because that was her only distinguishing feature, apart from her being 'friendly' and always 'sitting down so we could stroke her'. *cough* and apart from her, you couldn't tell one from another. Well Dad took the ring off, and put it on another hen, I knew it wasn't her, and I said so, but after a few days I just gave up trying to convince him! I do remember the fox was mentioned, because I remember saying "Oh nooo! It didn't get Blue Ring did it?!" and being told "No." I never did realise that he'd switched the ring though, just couldn't figure out what had happened to my favourite hen. I mean, Dad's don't lie do they. . .
Losing pets is a relatively gentle way of learning about death, sort of the next step up from seeing dead animals by the side of the road, but it's never going to be nice.
Just had an idea, could you tell her it ran away?