Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Back Yard Surprise this afternoon . . .

Very cool. And the price was right.

Living out in the middle of a valley with few trees, the cottonwoods and the globe willows around our house attract a lot of wintering birds as well as seasonal migrants. We also get our share of both Coopers and Sharp-shinned hawks. It has been fascinating to watch their aerial maneuvers as they nail everything from Eurasian Collared Doves to sparrows. They also usually get a few scaled quail from the house covey, too.

Before we finished screening in a new porch, one Sharp-shinned learned to chase birds into the back corner. He would nail them when they realized too late that the only way out was back past him.

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I'd pay money to watch that. [/quot

He did

Pretty bad assed looking bird!

Here's some excellent HD footage of a Coopers hanging out by a feeder.

Cooper's are bird hunters.A neighbor of mine used to raise fancy pigeons and somewhere I have some pictures of one from about 3 ft away that would not back away from his lunch. Once he had killed them all he moved on.

If about 16-22 inches head to tip of tail a Coopers. Damned near suicidal in their pursuit of birds.

Sharpshins are about a foot long and also primarily bird consumers. Sharpshin here:


A Coopers in hand. Smacked into house after a quail. The quail was dead, but the hawk came to.


Another Sharpshin

Both are pretty good at nailing quail and Eurasian doves around here. Low and fast over or around the house and down into the bird feeder area.

When these Goshawks show up, they do not even have to hunt. They come around the corner, and 5 out of 20 quail will commit suicide by flying into the house or a rig. This one, however, nailed a backyard bunny on really cold winter day.

I callem merlins. Sometimes they die, as we all due.

Yep, me too.

Got a couple of photos of a hawk that sometimes hangs out ambushing birds at our backyard feeders. We mostly see it in the late winter. It just plucked some feathers off a blackbird it killed and starting to tear hunks of flesh from it.
Not sure whether it's a Sharp-shinned or Coopers hawk.