Just saw a bird of prey swoop down and snatch something off my bird feeder.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

It happened so fast I couldn't tell what kind of bird it was - probably a red-tailed hawk, since those are common here - or exactly what it caught (might have been a cardinal). It was startling, though, because the bird feeder isn't far from my window. Living in a city, I don't often see predation in the open.

[Corvo Bianco]

1. Shoot you've got a bird trap

[Siwsan]

2. I saw that happen, once. There was a swoop and a POOOFFF of feathers!

Also saw a red tail take out a sea gull, over a frozen lake. Same effect. It was like watching a fireworks.

[Cattledog]

3. I've had Red Tailed Hawks sit on the crossbars of my SUV

I'm in Atlanta.

[calimary]

4. Cool! Birdies!

Love them birdies!

[brush]

5. I'm in Vegas and once saw a hawk in my backyard with a captured bird.

The hawk ate everything. All that was left were some feathers.

[hlthe2b]

6. I live in a big raptor area. Between the red-tailed hawks, prairie falcons and Great Horned owls...

I see this a lot. (as well as the sad signs posted from people looking for their tiny dog or cat)...

The biggest (red-tailed hawks, occasional golden eagle and Great Horned Owl) often leave the remains of rabbits and lots of birds--even ducks on occasion. They can knock a ring-tailed dove out of the air. For quite a while, I thought all the dead birds had succumbed to West Nile Virus, but it seems the raptors are just that efficient.

Cycle of life, I guess...

[shanny]

12. It'd have to be a REALLY tiny dog or cat

since the carrying capacity of a bird of prey is less than 1/3 of its own weight. Given golden eagles run 8-12 pounds (do you remember grade school texts showing eagles carrying away babies? I do. What a crock) prairie falcons and red-tails each less than 3, that isn't much. This assumes no remains were found, obviously. In CO I'd bet on coyotes.

[hlthe2b]

14. THe largest red-tailed hawk and Great Horned owls are five pounds-- readily able to kill a yorkie

a young cat or kitten, a rabbit. No, they can't typically carry the grown rabbits off, but eat what they will until someone or something disturbs them and leave the carcus. Thus my comments about seeing the remains of their efforts, quite constantly. I came upon a red-tailed hawk over the carcus of a rabbit just last week.

Do NOT deem to tell me what I know from decades out here. It is YOU who do not know what you are talking about. YOU DO NOT.

[shanny]

15. LOL life-long falconer here, born and raised in CO (7 decades now)

and I did specify remains being found did I not.

[hlthe2b]

16. Then I accept YOUR correction and inferred (though it should have been overt) apology for your error

and rudeness. I REHAB them!

[shanny]

17. my rudeness? look in the mirror.

btw the speaker "implies", the listener "infers" and no, I do not apologize.

[hlthe2b]

19. You were wrong and you know it.

But, have a nice day... Perhaps you might read up on raptors, as it seems you NEED to.

7 decades as you claim, but seemingly learned nothing.

[shanny]

38. one would almost think you didn't actually read what I wrote.

ciao baby

[handmade34]

7. the hawks were

going after my chickens... I put chimes and tinsel in the chicken yard and it has stopped them...

[Mrs. Overall]

8. Do you have sharp-shinned hawks in your area (sharpies)--

Last edited Sun Nov 18, 2018, 01:37 PM - Edit history (1)

They are notorious for staking out bird feeders and very quickly swooping in and grabbing small birds. They will also kill chipmunks and small squirrels. They are smaller than a red-tailed hawk.

I had a sharpie that would position itself on a branch near my bird feeder and it would pick off chickadees and juncos, and occasionally it would kill chipmunks that were foraging the seeds below the feeder. Its speed was amazing.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. We have them here (Minnesota) but they tend to migrate south in the fall.

Whatever this was, it was pretty big so more likely a red-tail. Wish I could have seen more of it before it flew off.

[shanny]

13. fwiw that is a merlin, not a sharpie

dark eyes (not yellow or red), much broader in the chest and shoulders, and with a shorter tail

[Mrs. Overall]

21. Oops--thank you. I grabbed the wrong image. Just changed it.

[shanny]

22. no problem

[yardwork]

37. Aha! That's what I saw on the fence near my feeder the other day.

[YessirAtsaFact]

9. We had a pair of red shouldered hawks breed in a wooded strip by our yard

In Glen Allen, VA

The voles that used to eat the roots of all my flowers and generally wreak havoc on my garden have all but disappeared since they moved in.

[2naSalit]

11. That happened at my place once

when I lived at roughly 5K ft elevation and it was +5F outside. It caught a sparrow and then flew up to a limb in a tree right in plain view so I could watch and identify. Turns out it was a Cooper's hawk, they hunt much like sharped shinned but are much larger. The hawk at my yard devoured that little bird nearly completely as I found one drop of blood and one feather in the snow afterward.

If it looked a lot like a sharp shinned but was too big, could have been one of those.

[aikoaiko]

18. Well it is a bird feeder.

Birds of prey have to eat, too.

[KayF]

30. +1

[elleng]

20. WOW!

I've never seen predation, I think, and haven't got pics of hawks yet (this year.) Have caught bald eagles. I'm NOT in the city.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

23. We see bald eagles often around here, anywhere there's water.

I often see them flying slowly over the Mississippi River, looking for prey (or dead fish). I did see one circling high over my neighborhood once; I'm not far from a couple of lakes (you're never far from lakes in this town). The bird that came to my bird feeder wasn't an eagle, though. That would have been a major freak-out. I've seen kestrels, too, but they are quite small.

[elleng]

24. I'm on a river, see hawks and eagles 'regularly,'

and have an osprey nest next door. Haven't yet learned to distinguish among varieties of hawk or falcons, tho my MD birder friends know it all!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

25. I once sa a pigeon bounce off my office window glass.

A hawk swooped down and snatched it up and ate it on top of a parking lot light.

[lastlib]

26. I once saw a WILD TURKEY fly into our office window!

In downtown Kansas City! WHAM!! The whole office could hear it! It fell two stories into our parking garage, and security guards had to go down and "protect" it until cops & game wardens could get there to take charge of it.

I could see a hawk or a dove flying into a window there-- but a freakin' TURKEY??!? I still scratch my head at that.

[snpsmom]

27. Hawks have been taking our layers

pretty regularly this year. I blame the useless rooster. Unlike the roosters we've had in the past, he didn't know his business. Of course, he was the first to go.

[FormerOstrich]

28. I was golfing with my sweetie

one day and heard a THUD. I looked over to him and saw a huge bald eagle swooping away from him.

I'm all excited and saying look at that eagle. Sweetie says "Yes, he just dropped a headless fish on me". Sure enough there on the 9th inches from honey there is a headless fish. Those things go THUD.

[Bayard]

31. That one made me LOL!

"dropped a headless fish on me".

[BluesRunTheGame]

29. Saw a magpie catch and kill a mouse in a busy intersection.

The mouse was running back and forth and under moving vehicles to get away but the magpie was able to keep track without getting run over. Magpies don't have talons so it had to pounce on and kill the mouse before carrying it away in it's bill.

I've also seen a bald eagle catch a pintail duck and watched an osprey plunge into a lake and come up with a fish.

[Bayard]

32. When I lived in Calif.

I had a 40 acre farm down the road from national parks, about 2,000 foot elevation. Tons of wildlife.

Saw hawk zoom down and pick up a snake in the driveway, and fly off with it writhing in the air. Used to have a couple of Red Tails that nested in a live oak in a field next to the house for several years. When they were teaching the babies to fly, they would bounce along in my flower garden.

In that same oak tree, once had a pair of male bobcats get in a big fight in the top of it. Much caterwauling!

[mnhtnbb]

33. Years ago I was sitting at my desk

on the 3rd floor of our house in Chapel Hill and saw a hawk fly by with a squirrel in it's talons. Shocked me. House was on a wooded hillside near UNC campus. Over the years I'd seen lots of deer, owls, Hawks, turkey vultues, even a coyote and fox. But I'd never seen a bird flying right past my window with another creature in its beak.

[blaze]

34. Once had a juvie cooper's hawk

in my birdbath! By the time I grabbed my camera, he had hopped up to my fence. I got this one shot thru the front door glass.

[mitch96]

35. I have a few coopers hawks in my neighborhood

And loads of parrots.. I would walk to work in the early morning and see them flying thru the trees or munching on mice. One time I saw a cooper chasing a bird thru the trees and it was exciting!! It was like a WW2 dog fight. Swooping and dodging, up and down. Really neat.
I just love 'em.. I can always tell when a cooper is in the area by the loud grating cak-cak-cak
call..
m

[Iggo]

36. "Bird feeder" is right.