We live on the corner of a very busy street, it is a main travel across our town and a route out of town. So I was surprised to see him/her this morning. I have not considered wildlife in my suburbian lot, this has opened my eye that there is more here than I realized. I know nothing about birds, so if I may ask what do you think he might be?
It's a Hawk, but not sure which kind. I'm sure someone else will know for sure, especially if you post it in the Birdwatching forum.
This message was edited Apr 20, 2007 11:36 AM
Cooper's Hawk
Yep, and you captured quite a glint in his golden eye! I have a lot of voles freeloading in my garden, so I always cheer when I see a hawk around. :-)
Cooper's (and Sharp-Shinned) are almost exclusively bird eaters. Owls would do better on those Voles.
I have read that most x-rays of Cooper's have broken, healed bones. They follow their prey in flight through dense woods and brush. The prey often gets away and many Cooper's die breaking a wing in pursuit.
Well, that works too... I've seen some English sparrows around, LOL... do you suppose we could train the Cooper's hawks to concentrate on invasive species? ;-) That's an interesting study with the x-rays.
Mostly, I see red tailed or red shouldered hawks around here, plus plenty of turkey vultures.
We have been trying to figure out how to train ANY species to prey exclusively on House Sparrows and European Starlings. If we could figure out how it would mean an early retirement - BIG bucks!
The Cooper's at my place learned how to come in at high speed from the east and round the corner on a banking turn around the feeders. This drove the feeder birds toward the house, where the slow (fat) Doves were easy picking. Someone doubted the ability for these birds to "learn" how to do this style of hunting. I watched it over and over and I'm convinced that this bird knew exactly what it was doing. The tactic never varied and almost always worked.
The doves like to sit on top of my dad's feeder, where I am sure they make tempting targets. He's see a couple of successful stoops -- pretty neat. Once, the hawk's path took him toward the house with a fat dove in his talons. I think the talons "lock" in place, so he couldn't have dropped the bird if he wanted to, and it was so big that he couldn't quite clear the roof. Dad says he watched the hawk do a slow speed thud against the house, just above the window, and then slide to the deck before taking off again, seemingly none the worse for wear (and still toting his dinner).
