Imagine my surprise when I looked out of the back door and saw an accipter yesterday! That’s a member of the Acciptridae family which are birds of prey like hawks. Don’t worry I didn’t know that either until now. I looked into what kind of hawk-falcon this bird was and finally settled on a Sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) after comparing it with Cooper’s Hawks and Kestrels. I’m not an ornithologist and if this hawk is something else please let me know but it matches all descriptions I can find of a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk. It lighted on a maple tree just outside of our vegetable garden.
I took quite a few pictures but none of them are of any great quality as I was shooting through a window and it was a cloudy day with poor light conditions. It was pretty neat to see but it’s kind of a mixed blessing. Sharp-shinned hawks favorite prey is small birds and we do like to feed the birds… Of course they also feed on small animals which would be great if they would devour the field mice and voles but that will only happen after the chickadees and tit-mice become scarce.
According to what I’ve read at Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology Sharp-shinned hawks have decided that backyard bird feeders are the place to be. Apparently I’m not only feeding the chickadees, cardinals, and finches!
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I love hawks! Because we live in a very rural area, with open fields edged by woodlands, we see a lot of hawks up around here (and bald eagles too). They seem to stay away from our birdfeeders, perhaps because we have pheasants and crows at our feeders as well as smaller birds. There are plenty of rodents around for the hawks, for sure.
Thank you for your encouraging comment, Dave. It's muchly appreciated.
The Sharpies that used to take the birds around my [former] feeders were most often House Sparrows with the occasional House Finch.
Happily, I've never seen the ones around my (suburban) garden with Chickadees, Phoebes, Bushtits, Thrushes, Goldfinches, and so on.
Still, I look at it all as an ecosystem and the bird hawks need to eat, too, on whoever is handy.
Dave,
You are right it is a Sharpie! They are very skillful bird chasers! The long tail and short wings help with your ID. I checked the Sharpie we have had in our freezer for 3 yrs, Meg's daughter was supposed to take it to the museum years ago.
Cuuute!! It looks young.
I would be a little shocked to see that at my birdfeeder!
I've only seen a hawk once in my yard and it was in mid flight and caught a Chickadee. Very sad to me although I know that's part of nature.
You did get a great picture. Hopefully he was only passing through and not there to eat.
How cool for you! I guess we really don't know what or who we are feeding..
Dear Dave
That was a great picture dispite how ever you got it ! .. Husband and I were stunned and mesmerized one very early Spring when a Sparrow Hawk (we think) swooped in and did his thing here .. it was a dramatic, almost stunning sight, to see nature play out, but we couldn't tear our eyes away from it .. we haven't seen one again now for a couple of years (I'm not sure I want to see "that" happen again .. but wow .. to what we did see !)
Joy
Jodi,
I'm a fan of the birds of prey too. I just really like seeing interesting birds in general. I wish I could guarantee that it would go after rodents alone since we seem to have quite a few voles showing up lately. You're welcome for the comment, it's the truth as I see it!
Steph,
The whole circle of life thing! We had a large family of house finches flitting around recently so maybe they were what attracted the hawk.
Randy,
I had to do a double take when I read "I checked the Sharpie we have had in our freezer for 3 yrs…" We've had birds in the freezer before (turkeys) but never a hawk! Is there a story behind that hawk?
Ginger,
I was pretty surprised. I was on the phone with my wife and had to stop for the pictures.
Darla,
Hopefully it won't disrupt things too badly but we definitely could be feeding much more than we realize at the feeders.
Joy,
Wow that is impressive to see nature in action! We saw a similar thing 2 years ago with a young mockingbird and a re tailed hawk. The other mockingbirds tried to help but were not able to do much.
What a great bird…and I think I've seen this hawk. We have hawks that scout our garden daily. You can tell when one is over head~~the garden gets very quiet and the birds disappear! Then I see her/him hovering or floating above the patio.
gail
Fantastic, Dave! Though our totem animal is the red-tailed hawk, thus our home's name, Hawk's Haven, the resident hawk (or, some years, a pair) is a Cooper's hawk. It's always a thrill to see it (or them) out in the backyard!