Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Damn Kestrels !!

The Coopers hawks patrol my feeders and I always enjoy watching them hunt. They are a cool little killer.

Nothing is forever

I’ve read that the Northern Goshawk feeds on the other hawks as well. Those are really impressive-looking birds. Not common here, but I see them occasionally in the Fall and Winter. They’re so large, their sitting profile is quite distinctive, as is their slate-gray color.

Yep. hit like the legion of BOOM !

It would be nice if you could train them to pluck doves. I saw one kill a pigeon and it had feathers flying off it like crazy. The drive by falconrywith the kestrel is prettybadass

Cool!

Do their heads pull off as easily as a doves??

Threads like this quickly distinguish farm heritage from the others.


Things that destroy valuables...soon don't.

Period, end of story.

To continue this thread, I also have both an Osprey and a Bald Eagle that have nested not too far away, about 1/4th mile. I see both almost every morning at Sunrise as they hunt the lake. The Bald Eagle loves to perch on the large Cotton Wood trees we have near the Lake. Three times this Summer I saw the Bald Eagle in Hot Pursuit of the Osprey that was carrying a fresh fish catch. The Osprey was yelling like crazy with the Eagle about 10' behind exactly paralleling it's flight. This went on for about 5 minutes until the Osprey dropped it's catch, then the Eagle dropped back to gather it off the water. Lucky to see all the action, but I do get up before dawn each day before anyone else while the world is awakening. AAHHHH, the retired life !! OK, so the Kestrels are cool, but I miss all the other birds, etc. except the Starlings and Grackles. And I wish they were not so loud all day. Being a Farm kid, I love nature/

I had Cooper's hawks in my backyard this summer that raised 3 chicks and they scared every bird and squirrel away which would have been okay but the chicks constant calling got to be pretty irritating. They ate a surprising number of Cicadas and songbird chicks.

I really don’t like Cooper’s. Murderous little bastards that will linger in an area and wipe out the songbird populations. We typically see a few kestrels, a few sharp shinneds and plenty of red tails. But we are overwhelmed with Cooper’s.

Saw a long legged hawk chase a sparrow into a holly tree and a pussy cat hunting them from the ground in Napa CA. Any idea what type of Hawk it was?

The cat was real friendly and talkative. He let strangers pick him up! I called him wideload because he was almost as wide as he was long. All the neighbors loved that cat and would feed him.

Just about every tree in this town has great-tailed grackles and/or white-winged doves nesting in it. An abundant prey base. Urban Cooper’s are coming on strong.

We’ve had Cooper’s in the adjacent Hill Country forever, never did get much into town. Those who maintain purple martin colonies first started reporting urban Coops wiping out their colonies in Florida maybe twenty five years back.

The phenomenon appeared to me to spread west along with the urban-adapted Coops; Houston beginning maybe fifteen years back.

Last year for the first time we had year-round breeding Coopers where I’m at.

Another note:

A pair of Coops raising IIRC three young in Upstate NY were observed to bring 64 robin-sized songbirds to the nest while raising their young.

OP, if you're feeding songbirds, squirrels, etc in your yard, you're chumming for raptors. Like birdwatcher said, if those kestrels are nesting in a hole, closing it up when they leave for the winter is your best bet at not having them around as much next season.

I feed jays, quail, and, doves, sparrows, etc around our house. Just the other morning, while scattering their cheap chicken scratch and placing peanuts for the jays, all the birds spooked, flew away, or landed in trees as a sharp shinned came flying thru looking for an easy meal.

I also let my hens out to range around most days. One day while out near them, all of a sudden they ducked under a shed. I looked up and here comes a marshhawk, or Northern Harrier as they are now called by the experts.

This Cooper's came through and stayed for a minute awhile back, hung around long enough for me to get a few decent pics



Cropped this pic to make a better portrait and sent it to the local paper.

Pretty slick!

It is amazing what that bird did. A college buddy, very well known in falconry circles, had Harris hawks which he threw at rabbits from the car window.

A cropped photo of a cropped photo 🙂



Check out those talons, the classic bird-catching configuration. That long skinny middle toe in front extends the reach and hooks the fleeing prey. Most of the killing is done with the heavier hind toe in back and first toe in front after capture. The hawk leans back out of retaliatory striking distance and “foots” it with legs stretched forward, working it with its claws until it stops struggling.

Cooper and Sharpshin talons don’t have to be that heavy on account of birds, being lightly constructed, aren’t that hard to kill.

IIRC related hawks in the tropics that prey mostly on lizards have relatively heavier, shorter-toed feet.

Yes, they will keep coming back, unless you raid the nest of thier chics, they usually have four. When I was a young lad, I had many, took only one out of the nest just before the 4th every year, for about 5 years. Always took the Falcon, or female which are about a third larger the Tercel, or male. Raised and flew them in the summer, and released back into the wild in early Sept. Neat bird.

Interesting tho, of all I had and watched, never saw one hit another bird...mice, insects.

The Merlin is a different creature.