At our previous home there was a big palm tree in the backyard, and it hosted a colony of starlings. It was a noisy, poopy, messy colony and I hated it.
Then one day a sparrow hawk moved in nearby. The colony never had a moment’s peace after that, as they had become, as it were, a larder for the hawk’s appetite and perhaps its nestful of chicks. Almost every day you’d see a starling speeding through the air over our backyard with the hawk in close pursuit, and occasionally the hawk would take its prey up to the top of our garage, where he’d pluck and rend the unfortunate starling. We’d cheer unmercifully as the feathers rained down. We really didn’t like the starlings!
Watching the games yesterday I was startled by a very sudden and very loud “WHAM” from the window behind me. Even my daughter came running in from the next room to see what had happened. We looked out the window and there, about 8 feet away, was a magnificent hawk standing on top of and constantly digging its talons into a dove.
I looked for awhile this morning to identify it and found a picture that almost exactly replicates our view, sans the yard furniture. Here is what we saw, a beautiful Cooper’s Hawk. The thin brown and white bands of its underpants were especially striking framed against the steel and blue-grey coat but I think the red eyes were the biggest surprise for us, truly a most handsome, gorgeous predator.
We watched transfixed for the next ten minutes as it first insured there was no danger around, constantly looking in all directions, then picked off a bunch of feathers and began tearing meat from the carcass. I noticed while it was tearing that the dove had sustained a broken bone from the attack, such was the ferocity with which it was hit.
After awhile the Cooper’s looked around, crouched and then flew off with the remains of the carcass leaving a swirl of grey dove feathers in its wake, scant evidence of the life that had existed just a short while before.
My SIL has a pair of some variety of hawk hanging out in her tree. She came out to find the pillows on her lawn furniture had been “unstuffed” by the birds. I’m pretty sure they’re nesting. Either that or it’s target practice for the BIL!
Yes, Lieu, it’s the Coopers, only the most feared and dreaded hawk in America, something even master falconers don’t want to take up. I swear, I saw one move so fast time went backwards ( or at least it appeared to me that the prey had exploded into a pile of feathers before the hawk even left the tree)
KRC, not to belabor but can you elaborate a little bit as I’m absolutely clueless as to the Cooper’s Hawk’s history and image. Is it that they’re so efficient as predators against birds we humans want surrounding us that they’re “dreaded” or that their agility surpasses a handler’s ability to manage one safely?
Having just been introduced to one two days ago, I’d no idea there was a stigma attached to them and find this really interesting.
Okay, I’m joking when I say it’s feared and dreaded, but due to the red eyes it has a rather scary appearence and it’s tendency to move swiftly and seem to come out of nowhere is unnerving. It used to be known as the bullet hawk, though I’m uncertain as to whether this is is due to the rate of speed at which it moves or because farmers would reach for bullets when they saw it approach the chickens. It can also be quite aggressive during nesting season; in an incident a couple years back a pair set up a nest near a government building in Rio Rancho and then started attacking the employees when they arrived at work.
We have a few red-tailed hawks and Cooper’s hawks in Atlanta. I came home one day to find a red-tailed hawk working on the remains of a squirrel in my driveway. He flew up to the roof of my garage and glared at me for interrupting his meal.
Another time, I walked into my back yard and startled a pigeon into the air. A Cooper’s hawk which had apparently been watching the pigeon swooped down and a grabbed it right over my head.
I had a very nice looking hawk come flying into my hunting area on Friday morning. It spent about 5 minutes perched in a nearby tree. I was very much hoping to watch it come down and take out a few of the chipmunks that were causing a lot of noise under my treestand, but instead, it decided to hunt an area without another hunter nearby.
