You
can always tell when the Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned hawks that hang
around our neighborhood are in the area.
Obviously one way of knowing is when you hear their calls or spot them
gliding effortlessly overhead, but the fun way of knowing is by observing the
behaviors of our yard birds- jays, white-winged doves, mockingbirds, sparrows,
cardinals, starlings, grackles. During the fall and winter large flocks of grackles,
doves, red-winged blackbirds and starlings will congregate in the upper story
of trees providing easy pickings for a hawk to tear through. When a hawk is cruising by they burst from their perch
all at once creating a sight that will definitely get your attention. Another way of knowing, especially if one is
perched nearby, is the mobbing calls most times by blue jays alerting you that
something is amiss.
There’s a willow tree in my son’s backyard that is part
of a thick mass of shrubbery and cane that creates a nice niche for birds to
hide, roost, and forage in peace. But today
that peace wouldn’t last for long. There was a mish mash of birds- grackles,
blue jays, starlings, white-winged doves all in this brushy area chattering up
a storm when all of a sudden I began hearing a bird screeching as if in
distress. A cry so gruesome that I knew
the bird had been snatched by a predator of some sort. Seconds later every other bird burst like
shot from the tree scattering in all directions. The only sound left behind were the mobbing
calls of a single blue jay and the blood-curdling screeches of the captured
prey in its final death throes, and then…….an eerie encompassing silence. I
walked over and looked up into the willow to see about midways up on a thick
willow branch, an adult female sharp-shinned hawk with a lifeless feathered
form in her talons.
Feathers began drifting in the breeze as the hawk began
meticulously plucking its prey. Every
now and then she would pause from her plucking to glance back at me as I tried
to position myself for a good photograph.
She didn’t seem at all concerned about my presence as she returned to
satiating her obvious hunger.
After getting a few photos of her I crawled through the
thick underbrush that skirted the base of the tree and was able to position
myself below the branch the hawk was perched. This permitted me the opportunity for photos of the underside of the tail feathers of the prey bird, which I knew
would help with its identity. It was a
surreal sight- the tail bobbing up and down with each tug of the hawk’s hooked
beak. At that moment I felt sympathy for
the bird it had captured, but
at the same time I was amazed at the power and grace of the accipiter as it fed.
I lay there quietly beneath the raptor as feathers
continued to rain down around me. I collecting
several of them that I knew would also aid with identification.
I eventually left the hawk to its feeding and returned
about two hours later to find it was still perched it the same spot with what
remained of its prey in its talons. It
sat quietly looking directly at me, still without a care that I was so close.
I went to a website I came across awhile back produced
by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called “The Feather Atlas” and
laid out all of the feathers I collected and began searching the image
database. It wasn’t long before I came
across the answer I was looking for.
What I had collected was several tail feathers and a couple primary wing
feathers of a Northern Mockingbird. The next day I returned to the kill site in hopes of
finding more remains, such as the wings or a head, but found nothing. More than likely she may have taken what was left of the
mocker’s carcass to another area to finish.
Other hawk blog posts: (1) (2) (3)Labels: accipiter, bird, birds, cooper's hawk, feather identification, feathers, hawk, hawks, mockingbird, natural history, nature, northern mockingbird, ornithology, prey, sharp-shinned hawk, talons
