At the very beginning of this latest snowstorm we had a hawk perch itself in the tree just outside our window.
Camera time!
I shot these pictures right through my window and screen (and the snow). I’m surprised they turned out as well as they did.
First, here’s the hawk.
Sitting Pretty
This tree is overlooking the area of my deck with the bird feeder. I’m guessing he went for one of the smaller birds, missed, and was stopping to rest.
While all the other birds had left, all of the squirrels hadn’t. But that tree is one of their normal exit points from the bird feeder area. So there were a couple of squirrels who really, really wanted to get past that hawk.
Tempting Fate?
That squirrel is probably quite safe. It’s large enough that it’s not part of the normal prey of this kind of hawk. It is doubtful that this hawk would risk getting injured in hand-to-hand (ok, talon-to-claw) combat. Additionally, the modus operandi of hawks is to swoop down from on high using stealth, not to launch itself nearly horizontally at something.
Eventually, the squirrel went down to the ground and climbed up the back side of the tree, getting extraordinarily close to the hawk in the process.
Too Close For Comfort
As I said, the squirrel was probably safe, but I bet it was still pretty stress-inducing for it.
Finally, here’s one more shot of the hawk from a different window.
Checking the Scenery
Anybody want to take a stab at identifying it? To help, that branch is 2¾ inches thick (yes, Mr. Anal here measured it), so that hawk is about 16½ inches tall. Male Cooper’s Hawk, maybe?
It’s tricky distinguishing between a Cooper’s hawk and a Sharp-shinned hawk, but Project Feeder Watch has a page where they do a nice side-by-side comparison: Tricky Bird IDs: Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper’s Hawk.
The Sharp-shinned hawk is supposed to be the smaller of the two; however, a large, female Sharp-shinned hawk is about the same size as a small, male Cooper’s hawk. In your top and bottom photos, the hawk in your hard looks like it has a high center of gravity (widest girth is upper chest). This tends to make me think it is a sharp-shinned hawk. The Cooper’s hawk as a more tubular body, and a lower center of gravity.
DOH!… that was supposed to be “the hawk in your yard looks like…” and then later, “The Cooper’s hawk has a more tubular body…”
I am horrible at identifying birds. They never seem to look like the pictures in the guides that I have. For this bird, I consulted my Golden Field Guide (Zim et al.), the Kaufman Focus Guide, and the National Geographic Guide. The only one that matched the pictures was a goshawk (but they are 19 inches, not 16.5). Regarding the high center of gravity, this was taken on a cold, blustery day, so I don’t know how much of the width was really width, and how much was feathers puffed out against the weather.