Actually I’m not entirely certain this deals with birds, but I have my suspicions. Perhaps animal experts can weigh in with informed speculation.
The first event was exciting: yesterday afternoon a cooper’s hawk landed on my back deck. I assumed initially he was drawn in by the birdfeeder and birdbath. Later reflection leads me to believe that he might have been interested in the abundant chipmunks who live rent-free in nooks and crannies around my house.
The second event was gross: I looked out the window this morning and saw what looked like a large glump of vomit, just below the deck where the hawk was perched. Curious as ever, I walked out there to examine it, and to my untrained eyes it indeed looks like vomit … and the partially digested organs, fur and whatnot of a chipmunk.
So, my question — did the hawk visit, nab a critter and then barf him back up? If so, why?
Extra perhaps-relevent information: my back yard backs up to an expansive green space, so I have in effect a big field behind my yard. I hear owls occasionally and see quite a few hawks, but this is only the second time we’ve seen one on our deck. I assume the predators cruise the open area for mice and other animals living in the green space. There’s bunnies a-plenty out there too.
I’m at work or I’d post a picture of the barf, which I’m sure everyone is super-eager to see.
Many birds and most raptor types “hawk” up the undigested parts of their meal after digestion.
The soft parts and small bones are digested and the larger bones, fur, etc. is barfed back up. It doesn’t go all the way through the bird’s digestive system.
Owl pellets are pretty well known, but of course, other raptors produce them too. Anecdotally, I can tell you that peregrine falcon pellets are smaller, wetter, and less cylindrical than great horned owl pellets. Here’s a video of one coming up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__rlpwgFiGw
I’m a little surprised your Coop took a chipmunk - they are specialist bird predators.
No, I’m familiar with pellets, though I wasn’t thinking about them when I saw this gunk. What I saw was goopy, wet yack. The animal didn’t even look all that digested; I could clearly see organs and fur. But it was not a whole animal by any means. And there was all that vomit-looking stuff with it.
Cooper’s Hawks (along with the smaller Sharp-shinned Hawk) are Accipiters and mainly specialize on small birds. They are ambush predators, and take their prey by surprise by pouncing from cover. They have relatively short rounded wings and long tails to make them maneuverable within forest and brush. They will take other prey, however, like small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, and large insects.
As has been said, raptors will hack up pellets containing the indigestible parts of their prey. Maybe this one was alarmed or disturbed before the digestive process had gone too far.
The hawk sighting and the barf aren’t necessarily related. Is there anything else that might have eaten a rodent and then threw up on my retaining wall? Some people in my neighborhood have mentioned coyotes are around, and I may or may not have seen one cross the road in front of me one night. Other than that, what we mainly have in terms of wildlife is ground hogs, racoons, possums, and foxes, though I’ve only seen one. There is a park nearby where I saw an otter once and there might be more animals down there.
What else might dine on chipmunks? I’d like to cultivate their presence.
Edited to add: I live in Kentucky. Near Eskippakithiki.
My thought as well. They will often vomit a recent meal if they are disturbed or afraid for their own life. Believe me, this is not something you want to experience if the bird in question is a vulture.
Coyotes, foxes, and feral cats all might be possibilities. A raccoon might, but chipmunks might be too agile for one. An opossum would eat one but also probably couldn’t catch one. Other hawks also eat rodents such as Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks.
It could be worth noting that (based on my observations) the “pounce” usually consists of running down the prey in a short, fast flight. It can be quite surprising how well an accipiter can fly through trees and brush that look much too dense to allow passage to a bird of its size.
