A Feeding Juvenile Cooper’s Hawk
By Charlie • August 7, 2008 • 8 commentsAt the end of last April I posted a short series of photos taken in India of a Black Kite feeding on the intestines of what I thought was probably a large dog. Judging by the number of page views this series attracted it seems that there are a fair few 10,000 Birds readers who quite like photos of raptors doing what raptors do best…so in a similar spirit here’s a longer series of photos of a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk making fairly short work of what I think is (was) a Mourning Dove.
Photographed in the San Jose backyard of my very good friend Jack Cole just two days ago (boy, will I be writing a load of posts from the two days birding we just did together!), this juvenile Cooper’s has been taking doves quite regularly and often perching on either Jack’s fence or in nearby tree to eat. On this occasion it chose the fence at the bottom of the garden, and I decided to see whether I could get reasonably close without disturbing it. As you can see from the photos I started clicking away when I was about 25m away, and standing so that I was partially hidden from the bird’s line of sight by a large shrub. By the time I’d decided that I really couldn’t take another picture I had walked to within 10m of it and was looking directly at what appeared to be a fairly disinterested bird of prey. In fact the only time it seemed in the least peturbed was when it was mobbed several times by a very loud Northern Mockingbird…but even an aggressive mimid wasn’t enough to put this young Coop off its meal, and I’m happy to be able to say that neither was I. I retreated slowly backwards and easily made it back to the house with the hawk still on the fence (though the same can’t really be said for the dove…).
• Have you seen the cool 10,000 Birds t-shirts? Get yours today! •
(throws camera down in disgust and walks away muttering about how unfair life is)
In other words, great shots!
Those are some terrific photos. I periodically have a hawk patrol my backyard where I feed birds, but have never seen it catch anything. I can’t believe it let you get so close. Nice.
LOL @ Corey - same reaction here! Good job Charlie!
Cheers, Klaus
I mourn the dove….!!
I’ve said it before, but I’m one very lucky birder!
And, you know, mourn the dove, but admire the hawk I think. And just imagine the death toll if hawks carried guns and killed Mourning Doves for ’sport’ like we do (apparently some 9,000,000 MoDos are shot each year by ’sportsmen’)…
Great pictures.
I am wondering if there is anyway I can send you two pictures of birds that I took photos of in Southern Florida.
I am new to birding and cannot find these birds.
Would appreciate any help you could give.
Thanking you in advance.
Hi Shelly
Happy to help if I can. Please send your photos to my email address and I’ll do my best to ID them for you.
All the best
Charlie (charlie10000birds AT gmail DOT com)
hey charlie, great photo of the hawk, i had one just like that in my backyard this morning, i was about 15 feet away from it , and i dont think it was intimidated as it jsut stayed perched on my lawn chair surveying the yard for sparrows and other birds, yes i have some reservation about it eatin gmy birds, but i understand it i snature and i cannot interrupt the cycle, but the hawk really is beautiful upclose, do you have any idea , what i can place out for to eat as an alternative to my birds, please help, thank you