I love seeing him on my fence and am thrilled when he nails another one of those pigeons that defacates on my roof. Beautiful birds!

It will sit on the fence and watch me. I seen him catch some sparrows, but he has never gone after me.

Michelle, Helen, Penny, Spanky and Faye pup

I have had more then one encounter with them over the years. I have been in the same house for over 20 years...live on fly pass and so get all kinds of birds of prey..just dropping in for migration and so on.
I have seen eagles on the rare occasion..since the lake is just down the street.
but alot of coopers.
they sure do not think twice about taking a bird under the feeder and they are FAST FAST. they are great flyers..very impressive. I have seen a number of birds die under the feeder if a cooper takes a swoop. they scatter all over and many hit windows and such.
we also get a few northern goss hawks here. another first cousin to the coopers hawk. one was circling my son outside one day..the nest was in the next lot to us. he said he could almost feel the bird..that is how close she came to him. they are massive and yes another aggressive hawk too.

I have tons of books around here about hawks and eagles
statues of birds of prey all around the house
read tons of material on birds of prey too

I have had a family of screetch owls in the backyard that nest here on occasion. she had 10 little ones...and that is amazing..they came to the house and banded the mother. it was cool and the little ones are very cute. but as they said, be very careful of the mother...

birds of prey need to be respected
they have learned to adapt to our life styles
they help to keep down the rodent population
and many of them are beautiful to watch

I personally keep my distance with all hawks...to be safe.

sooooo cool.

perigine are beautiful birds. I have had one of them accidentally hit my window here one time..she took a fly at the birds under the feeder. she was knocked silly but did manage to fly off.
they nest in the strangest places the perigines. they have learned to really adapt.

thanks for sharing that pic

I feed birds out front, and across the street is a big tree, and one morning I saw a lot of sparrows take flight, and a puff of feathers. I thought two birds may have collided. Later I saw the hawk in the tall tree and put 1 + 1 together. I like birds, imagine the view and freedom of flight. Here is a bird pic, I took of Peregrine Falcon banding day downtown Indianapolis in 2008. They raise young every year right on the circle, putting on a good show.

Steve

and never heard of that paticular species. We always just called them hawks. I'll remember that. It also made me think of that scene from the proposal were the hawk snatched the pup from sandra bullock,lol.

good idea with the strings.
Coopers are really bird hawks..any bird will do..
I never thought the bird would take a run at a puppy..
birds of prey can only lift half their own weight usually.
so an eagle that is maybe 10 pounds or a bit larger
can only life 5 pounds or so...

that is what makes it very interesting see some of the eagle videos..especially the goldens..
they truly can not lift the weight that people think.
they might try and they might kill it and eat it at ground level..I have seen red tail hawks do that here..with a say a very large hare or something like that..

birds of prey are very interesting..
still would love to get to bald eagle and golden eagle festival ..
I love to them close together.
but leaving the dogs for 2 weeks would be very hard on me to to that..
so for now
bought a good dvd and a big screen tv and take a tour that way..lol

I will go and do the falconers course sometime for the day.

where ever you have birds in your yard..there will be cooper hawks..
try to see if you can watch them do some of their fancy flying.
they are cool to watch..
they usually have 3 plus babies in a brood.

I have learnt to live with them here too
they are not going anywhere..lol
glad you now know it is a coopers hawk..

sorry to hear of Raven
and best of luck to you and Betty

There's been a pair in a tree here for decades. They fly above my pasture screeching and it's a beautiful sound. I assumed that was their new youngster? They never get that close to me, normally they just fly over. When I first got chickens 8 years ago, they would sit in the trees near their yard at about 40' up and watch them. They did go for a hen, nailed her in it's tallons and got her tangled in the fence she was near when it struck. Raven was barking his head off trying to protect the flock and I ran out and ran right up to it and it dropped the hen. That girl was fine and boy, did she have a story to tell in the henhouse that night. I was shocked it tried for her, she was probably 10#.

I never knew what species raptor they were. But found out that I can put up "hawk strings" to protect my flock. Basically I strung up baling string across the entire yard at 5' up (height of my fence) every 4'. The birds would sit grumpily in the trees and they seemed to know that they could dive through it, but wouldn't be able to fly back up out. I've never had an attack since.





"Little Miss Betty Cuteface"
Toofie on the left, eyeball on the right.


Raven (prior to tripawd surgery) and Betty

they really do help to keep down some pigeons I am sure..
along with many rodents
I often see them here..but do not have a fence post..
but they sit in the big oaks in the backyard...
they are very impressive fliers..
neat to walk..