Will a hawk attack a wild bird? YES! photos

My 14yo daughter was walking up our street today when a hawk above our house caught her eye...then a bird flying across the street, then BOOM feather explosion in the street and Lunch was served up in the neighbors yard. I love Colorado!

Yes those are feathers all over my street

Wow, i love it! We have a ton of Hawks here and they are amazing to watch, i often find spots where they have caught pigeons but have never witnessed the act before. Our hawks are often chased by Magpies and Plovers =/

There are lots of doves around my house, and scenes like this are not uncommon, even in my yard. The parrots saw one only 2 metres from my verandah back door and everyone went into a mad panic. I've found a headless dove too- that might have been a cat.

Love it! Thanks for sharing.

Nature sure is beautiful !!

Great shots, thanks for sharing!

Beautiful photos! I know it's nature and all, but I can't help but feel a little bad for whatever it caught

Some assembly required.

wow wonderful shots crazy that you got to see it cool and sad at the same time! I know what you mean Kiwibird I feel the same way good for the hawk sad for the other guy....

Awesome! It's a big female coopers hawks, they are ambush predators and have a long tail and short rounded wings. Amazingly maneuverable. One of the biggest threats to our parrots in terms of wild raptors.

Beautiful bird. I second Cooper's Hawk. Astur cooperii*. These birds are known to eat other birds, mammals and reptiles, occasionally fish!

Here's a Louis Agassiz Fuertes painting of a Cooper's (left) and Sharp-shinned (right), shown with a Rose-breasted Grosbeak and (Eastern?) Meadowlark, respectively. Public domain image.




*Using its Taxonomy in Flux scientific name, so I apologize if this bothers anyone.

I'm with Kiwibird I feel bad for the bird it caught. That is one reason why I only volunteered a couple times at the Birds of Pray Foundation. On the other hand I find raptors amazing because of their hunting skills and how agile they are in the air.

It's incredible that a Peregrine Falcon can go 200 MPH in a dive.

Wow, what a gorgeous bird that is! Coopers Hawk, you say Ashley? We don't have 'hawks' here in Oz beyond a few Goshawk species which are kind of the same, only different. It is kind of confronting to see a raptor get its lunch virtually under your nose, but at the same time, they are consummate hunters and so perfect at what they do!

Ospreyeagle, thanks for the pics! It's so nice to know that other people have very similar species to try and tell apart. We have the Australian Goshawk and the Collared Sparrowhawk, which are very difficult to tell apart unless they sit side by side and facing in the same direction. Same with the Whistling Kite and Little Eagle. I could watch birds of prey all day - they're fascinating!

This is why they're dangerous to our parrots as I was watching North America off Discovery today and watching a momma Peregrine Falcon capturing a Mourning Dove and fed it to her babies then went to attack Pelicans cause they were too close for comfort. Then she saw a snake that was getting too close to her nest so she attacked it too. Here's a video showing one attacking a Duck in midair and ate it for dinner.

[ame=http://youtu.be/cvH_Qa5svSw]PEREGRINE FALCON STRIKES DUCK MIDAIR - YouTube[/ame]

I had lots of hawks, and I also fed the wild birds where I lived in NorCal.

I actually had three little blue jays that would fly INTO my house and hang out with me. It started with a hungry little runt, who wasn't getting fed, and was starving. His siblings beat him up and hoarded all his food. He would come back calling to me for more. So I started putting his food INSIDE the house, not outside. He would come in, eat safely and then leave again.

When his siblings saw that he was getting extra food coming INTO the house, I suddenly found myself with the three amigos... One day, I took a nap on the couch with the entire flock (11 birds at the time) perched on my person, or the back of the couch...

I woke up with 14. The three blue jays had come in, and decided to join us for our afternoon nap. They were perched on the back of the couch.

That runt became my favorite wild bird. He would fly alongside me in the tree chirping at me, when I took the birds for our evening walk. And they would line up on the fence the minute my light came on...

One day I was out front doing some gardening with my front door open, and I heard the runt calling to me in a panic alarm call. He did something foolish. He saw me in the yard, saw the front door open, and made a dash for the inside of the house...

He made it about half way. The hawk went into a speed dive, and took him right out of mid air, right in front of me, about 100 yards from my front door. I don't think the little bird suffered. It look like he died the minute the hawk hit him.

The hawks took all three of them. None of them survived nesting season.

I don't blame the hawk. They had chicks to feed. But it hurt to watch... I loved that little runt!

This is an adult Sharp-Shinned Hawk. They are a smaller hawk but their red eyes make you not want to mess with them.

Not the best picture. It was taken through my tinted sliding glass door I knew if I opened it he would be gone.

I like the Swainson's hawk they eat mostly grasshoppers and rodents. It's amazing that they travel 10,000 miles to Argentina for the winter.

Birdbrain91 said:

This is an adult Sharp-Shinned Hawk. They are a smaller hawk but their red eyes make you not want to mess with them.

Click to expand...

You don't want to fly over their nests with a parachute either... MAKES THEM REAL MAD!!!

Birdbrain91 said:

I'm with Kiwibird I feel bad for the bird it caught. That is one reason why I only volunteered a couple times at the Birds of Pray Foundation. On the other hand I find raptors amazing because of their hunting skills and how agile they are in the air.

It's incredible that a Peregrine Falcon can go 200 MPH in a dive.

Click to expand...

There is a guy that skydives with one, and it's pretty amazing. Takes the bird with him on the plane, jumps out with a target, and the bird goes straight down following him...

The amazing thing is they make the same sort of adjustments in vertical freefall with their wings, that we do with our shoulders and our arms.

The guy's air speed indicator hit 190 on the speed dive, and the falcon was right there with him the entire way!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uy84N8CjR0"]Skydiving Falcon - YouTube[/ame]

Copperarabian said:

Awesome! It's a big female coopers hawks, they are ambush predators and have a long tail and short rounded wings. Amazingly maneuverable. One of the biggest threats to our parrots in terms of wild raptors.

Click to expand...

I was wondering what kinda hawk it was while looking at the pictures. They look very simular to the goshawks we have in the uk, they are our biggest natural hawk.

Great pictures tho.... Thanks for sharing. Birds of prey sure are a special group of birds. I love them

The hawks never go in my yard or even near it. I have 4 dogs so most wild life stays out. Even with that, I normally do not let my little chihuahua go out alone, I make her take the pitbull or heeler with her. LOL