On August 27, 2012, I spotted this hawk on the lawn across the street from my house. The day before, I saw a hawk fly into the tree, a bird fly up out of the tree and the hawk took off. It was quite noisy and I could only hear it...in comparing it to recordings on my Audubon app, I figured it was a Cooper's Hawk. On the 27th, this hawk came to the exact same tree numerous times. Whatever it had killed, some of it had dropped to the ground because it was "stomping" it. I suspect it ripped the poor little bird in pieces, because it came back several times for more of its catch, still on the ground. If this is the same hawk as on the 26th, I would guess this is a Cooper's, and it was quite large with a nice, rounded tail. Please correct me if I am wrong...here a few pictures that I particularly liked.
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| With prey...as you can see, I was able to get quite close! |
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| Dropped its prey... |
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| On the ground, right in front of me, to pick it up! |
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| Gorgeous bird! |
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| Picked up the prey and flew to another tree, a few houses down. |
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| I thought this was cool. |
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You can see what looks like entrails hanging from its beak!
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Awesome encounter Tiffanie! I agree with your ID of the Cooper's Hawk. Here's a link I found useful in the past: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/accipiterIDtable.htm
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