Vive la carnivores!

I was sitting in the hot tub yesterday enjoying the cold 20° day and trying to get over my jet lag when I looked up into our Honey Locust tree to see this Accipiter enjoying dinner. I gracefully slunk from the tub, raced into the house and grabbed a 500m lens I have been trying out. It does not have image stabilization and even propping it up on deck railing only produced one shot that was in focus. About the time I took this shot, another bird was crying woefully from the tree, disturbing the hawk who quickly flew off.

More posts on this species: Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Who knew getting breakfast was so much work!

I captured what I believe to be juvenile Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) in my front yard one morning. I shot the pictures through the window, so they are rather grainy. Without seeing the tail, it is difficult to distinguish the Cooper's Hawk from the Sharp-shined Hawk.

The Accipiter genus are bird eaters. They like to use surprise to catch their prey. They will fly recklessly through the tree branches or will startle birds around a feeder so that they can catch one in flight.

After plucking this poor robin for a while in the front, the hawk picked up his meal and flew into a neighbors back yard where he continued plucking for a while. I wonder how long it takes to remove sufficient feathers to actually get to the meat?

More posts of this species (Vive la carnivaores)