Home › Forums › Bluebird Chatter › Cooper's Hawk…
- This topic has 6 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 10 months ago by nhhawk6.
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November 26, 2017 at 8:41 am #6071
Of all our resident hawks, this guy is my favorite. Not a fan of his preference for songbirds, but have to respect his hunting approach and skill. He has never nabbed a bluebird, but enjoys 2-3 successful hunts per day from this very spot. The feeding station is on a hill in the backyard. He doesn’t hide. Just sits here, waits for a bird to return to the general area (within an acre or so), and grabs it out of mid-air. He has lived here as long as we have, so I have no right to complain. His property, not mine.
Randy
Bedford, New HampshireDecember 17, 2017 at 7:32 pm #6078It looks like a sharp-shinned from size and shape but the tail looks like a Coopers. What is it? I understand where you’re coming from. I like to look at them when they are in my backyard and take photos of them but I’ve had one kill my male bluebird so I usually shoo them away.
Tammy
December 17, 2017 at 7:33 pm #6079I’m terrible at telling the difference between the sharp-shinned and the Coopers.
Tammy
December 18, 2017 at 6:57 pm #6081Hi, Tammy. This guy is my Cooper’s. I do have a Sharp-shinned, two Broad-winged, and several Red-tailed hawks, and they all visit regularly, but my Cooper’s actually lives on my property. Rounded tail, darker grey wings, and bright yellow spot at the base of his beak set him apart from my smaller “sharpie”. I have definitely been fortunate, in that I have yet to lose a bluebird, but I know that won’t last. One thing I don’t understand is that none of the hawks ever grab a Morning Dove. They are big, slow, and fat, yet they never get touched. Maybe they are awful tasting…?…
Randy
Bedford, New HampshireDecember 23, 2017 at 11:07 pm #6082Duh….just saw that yournpost is titled “Cooper’s”. Sorry! I have seen a few piles of MODO feathers around but not a lot….with as many as there are and as slow and clueless as they are you’d sure think they’d be a Hawks main staple.
I don’t have a sharpie here.Tammy
December 25, 2017 at 11:22 am #6083Randy, here in Missouri (& probably lots of other places) there is actually a season to legally hunt mourning doves and are highly prized for hunters to eat. So maybe if they taste good to humans the hawk probably doesn’t like the taste (ha, ha). Merry Christmas to all!
Just Googled the difference between mourning doves & “turtle doves” which my hubby called them and the main difference is mourning doves are in North America and turtle doves are European birds but very similar – lesson learned today.
December 30, 2017 at 5:18 pm #6084Interesting, Carol.
I am an avid fisherman, but I do not hunt, so I looked up the history of hunting regulations in NH and found out an interesting fact: The state of NH had a dove season for one (1) day in 1983. There was such outrage across the state, that they abolished the dove season the next day and reclassified the mourning dove as a songbird. It has been protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty, ever since. All I know is that they eat a lot of my seed, and we should probably revisit the whole mourning dove/songbird thing…Randy
Bedford, New Hampshire -
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