This sweet hawk flew just over my head as I was walking out to my car.
She allowed me to sit in the shadow of a building twenty feet away, with my phone in shadow and my face in the sun, to take these shots.
She had flown between trees and I had seen the spread of her tail.
It was banded grey and black with a touch of white, perhaps at the ends.
I was thinking Cooper’s Hawk, but wasn’t sure.
I texted a pic to Kate and asked her if it was a Cooper’s. She said she thought it more likely a sharp-shinned hawk, which is very similar in color, but with a rounded head and a touch smaller. In looking at the images on two different bird identifier apps, these two birds are amazingly similar. It could have been either one. I’m am also leaning toward the sharp-shinned (I have always thought it was sharp-skinned) hawk based on it being smaller and liking to hunt at feeders. They are strictly bird eaters, so love to use backyard bird feeders as lures for their dinner.
If it were summer time, it would definitely be a Cooper’s, since they only live in wooded areas when breeding, but will hunt in urban and edge habitat during the winter.
I hate how shy my favorite birds are. Then perhaps they're my favorites, because they're shy. I wish crows were shy. (Though the movie The Crow with Brandon Lee, is one of my favorites.)
ReplyDeleteUgh - those Sharp Shinned lovelies manage to pick off a hen or two nearly every winter. They sneakily hunt on overcast days and toward dusk at the edge of the woods, and usually only eat the head meat because they're to small to carry the hen away. Small and crafty lol...
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