Hawks anyone?

This was a few years ago. My cat's were making weird chirpy sounds one day, so I went to see what was going on. I saw this...



It was eating a morning dove. I usually have a few pairs of morning doves nest in the backyard yearly.



Not the best pictures. Crappy camera and every time I zoomed in too far it was really grainy!



It tried to fly off with the rest of it, but ended up leaving a leg which is why I knew it was a morning dove!

That there is an adult cooper's hawk, male I believe. 99% bird eaters.
I've lost a couple of chickens to cooper's, they're smallish hawks but are amazing hunters and take on large prey when they want too. I hated them at first for eating my chickens. Eventually I learned to respect them. Luckily a pair of red shouldered hawks (Mostly small bird/mammal/reptile eaters) moved in to my neighborhood, and I haven't had problems with the cooper's for awhile.

Worked with a couple when I was volunteering at an avian rehab center. They're amazing up close.

Jon114 said:

That there is an adult cooper's hawk, male I believe. 99% bird eaters.
I've lost a couple of chickens to cooper's, they're smallish hawks but are amazing hunters and take on large prey when they want too. I hated them at first for eating my chickens. Eventually I learned to respect them. Luckily a pair of red shouldered hawks (Mostly small bird/mammal/reptile eaters) moved in to my neighborhood, and I haven't had problems with the cooper's for awhile.

Worked with a couple when I was volunteering at an avian rehab center. They're amazing up close.

Click to expand...

Ah very cool! I really wasn't sure what it was. I tried looking at the Michigan native hawks and was torn between a few. I didn't want to disturb his meal so I stayed inside until he flew off. He was probably going at it for over 30 minutes.

We have quite a few hawks in the area. Nice river nearby with some high tree's I bet is perfect nesting sights for them. When I take my tortoises outside I put a hardware cloth lid on that latches onto their outdoor pen as I've seen some circling occasionally. Luckily the tortoises are getting bigger so I'm not sure they'd try to eat them now lol.