Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Adult Cooper's Hawk

Well, it's been a long time since I've put a post up, but I had to share this Cooper's Hawk, which flew into the yard on Friday morning and spent some time hunting finches (unsuccessfully) in a small xylosma bush.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get close enough for a decent photo, but these show its fantastic red eyes and dark grey back, indicating it's an adult. (Juvenile Cooper's Hawks have brown backs and golden eyes.) It wasn't until I processed the photo that I noticed that this hawk's been banded.

3 comments:

robin andrea said...

I wonder who banded this bird? How interesting. Our hawk has been a no-show for a few days, but when he shows up, he's quite diligent. Sometimes we just see the flash as he flies low through the yard.

LauraHinNJ said...

They are so fierce-looking! Little birds beware...

Pam in Tucson said...

cathy - Yes - we're certainly contributing to the food chain, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

ra - I'm going to try to find out something more about banding of local birds. Just seeing a white band on a blurry photo probably isn't going to be very helpful to anyone, though. Haven't seen another hawk in the yard since this one.

laura - The red eyes seem to make them particularly fierce-looking. The little birds seem to take good care of themselves, but the hawks are picking off the weaker ones.