Yes, this beautiful but also stern and rather solemn face can mean only one thing…”I’m on your fence and watching your feeder!”.
Although stunning, these hawks mean business and the more passerines you have munching on your bird seed, the more they’ll be attracted to your feeder, and more specifically to your birds.
But there’s hope. All About Birds says, “If a Cooper’s Hawk takes up residence in your yard, you can take your feeders down for a few days and the hawk will move on.”
And although they can be menacing, they do have some redeeming characteristics, as the site also states, “Males tend to be submissive to females and to listen out for reassuring call notes the females make when they’re willing to be approached. Males build the nest, then provide nearly all the food to females and young over the next 90 days before the young fledge.”
So, apparently, there’s some good in every inhabitant of the planet. We may just need to look a bit harder to find it…
Peggy, All birds need to eat. Some birds, like Coops, eat other birds. Raptors are the natural “wildlife managers” in our world. They are intelligent and stealthy, and some see them as killers, but they provide a essential service in the ecosystem. Most of the time, they cull the herd, or the flocks in this case, taking birds that are sick, injured, or not keenly aware of their surroundings. Cooper’s Hawks often do this right in front of our eyes, which startles some people. I personally see this as an amazing gift, to watch the prowess of this feathered being doing what it does to survive. Most of the time, the feather puddles that I find around our property read “junco”, prolific and common local residents. Sometimes Coops will pluck and eat a bird in the grass or on the ground, right where they took it, but most of the time they seem to prefer a covered perch, on a branch inside the canopy of the trees. They remain keenly aware while plucking and eating, looking up and around every few seconds for larger predators intent on their meal – or them specifically. They are a beautiful and fascinating bird, and welcome in our yard to patrol our feeders and landscaping. For me, it is a good thing to see Cooper’s Hawks patrolling the neighborhood.
Thanks so much, Gary, your comment is spot on, educational, and beautifully written. And YES, I agree with you completely, however, for those of us who are sensitive to loosing their backyard birds to them, then bringing in a feeder for a few days will discourage any raptors and encourage them to go elsewhere. And my reference to their more “redeeming characteristics” was tongue in cheek, and not intended to ruffle any feathers, so to speak.
Love his expression!
Me too…INTENSE!