Urban Backyard Birding: Cooper’s Hawk

Last week I had an amazing bird encounter right in my own backyard. I took a ton of pictures, but it really only takes one to get the gist of the experience – which certainly wasn’t something for the faint of heart.

Thanks to followers of the Go Explore Nature Facebook page and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I have since identified this as a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk. With a still near dead pigeon in its clutches.

Although at the time I thought I was witnessing a rare event, it turns out that Cooper’s Hawks are actually fairly common urban birds – in some cases with numbers higher in towns than in their natural habitat (forests). All those pesky city pigeons and doves prove easy targets for the hawks, which dine primarily on birds.

So how did I happen across this scene? I was minding my own business working at my desk (which conveniently faces the backyard) when the hawk landed. It took me a few seconds (and two or three glances back from my screen to the hawk) to realize that I was, in fact, seeing a hawk.

It landed just 10 feet or so from the sliding glass door that leads from our bedroom into the backyard and promptly began to remove the pigeon’s feathers.

And then it saw me.

Have you ever been stared down by a hawk? Yeah, me neither. I don’t think I blinked for 10 minutes. Thankfully, the hawk eventually determined that I wasn’t a threat and returned to its work.

I grabbed my camera, zoomed in and starting snapping. I didn’t even notice the still-moving pigeon until I had the hawk in close up view.

It was a gruesome scene to witness; one wild animal devouring another. At the same time, I was moved to be part of the experience, seeing the cycle of life at work.

The 30-minute encounter was eventually interrupted when the kids next door came out into their backyard to play basketball. The hawk was spooked and took off with its prey to eat out of sight amongst the branches of one of the trees in our backyard.

I just wish The Explorers had been around to see the show.