... full feathering wouldn't be in yet if it was a hatchling earlier this year.

Maybe if small , second choice, a sharp shinned.

You're good

I have a comprehensive bird encyclopedia. It is a Coopers Hawk.

This is a juvenile. Adults have a darker blue-gray coloring on their head and wings.

Nice shot, Steve

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/coopers_hawk/id

Beautiful.

they are on the rise around chicago and i have no doubt that it is due to the explosion of backyard chickens here.
have had them hanging out in my backyard, but since i keep roosters (to the dismay of a few neighbors) they dont hang long.

That is a not-robin.

Little Brown Job.

The one in Steve's pic is not a "Little" Brown Job, however. It is a somewhat large brown job. (However it's relatively small for a hawk.)

But I have no ideas what the f-ck I'm talking about.

at my bird feeder.

They are accipiter and not a buteo. They don't soar like the redtails - they are a forest hawk that has adapted well to suburban environments.

Born last year, and has gone through only part of its first molt (brown speckled feathers are juvenile plumage). Probably a male, given the size relative to the fence (female would be larger). One of the accipiters, of which there are three--goshawk, cooper's hawk, sharp-shinned hawk--all essentially identical, except for their size.

Outrageously maneuverable (that long tail), they hunt in cover and tight spaces--I bet that one cleared out all the feeder birds in a hurry! just by appearing on the scene.

Last edited Mon Aug 8, 2016, 10:46 AM - Edit history (2)

While he sat there, there was only one immature Downy Woodpecker in the yard. He was motionless inside the Woodpecker feeder cage. He knew.

Here in these pictures from earlier this year of a Red Bellied Woodpecker eating from the Woodpecker feeder. The doesn't stop him, but stops several non-Woodpecker species from eating out of their feeder. The Downy is small enough to fit inside the cage.



Like this shot of a Hairy Woodpecker & a Pileated. We now have two caged woodpecker feeders. We added one when he Pileated started showing up early this Spring.

I really, REALLY miss my yard birds. Some years back we moved from our little house in Idaho, which was located in a small community / oasis in a sagebrush sea and on a minor migratory flyway--heavily birdscaped, a water feature that functioned year round, feeders and shelter everywhere. My birding friends always made it a point to start the Christmas bird count in our yard.

Never got a pileated woodpecker--they could be found further up in the mountains--but lordy it seemed like everybody else showed up. The largest populations we got were literally hundreds of goldfinches in the winter, and swarms of hummingbirds for about a month starting in mid-August (I used to refill 3 or 4 quart feeders every day). Resident kestrels and Lewis' woodpecker, a bald eagle once, blue jays (odd at the time, west of the Rockies; I think they are more common now), grosbeaks, a bobolink, lazuli buntings, western tanagers, yellow-billed cuckoo, saw-whet owls....sigh...once saw a northern shrike pick a LBB (little brown bird) off a feeder right in front of me. Had a sharp-shinned hawk as a regular visitor but generally the cooper's stayed away--maybe they didn't care for the resident falcons (my husband is a falconer) or, more likely, were after larger prey.

My wife saw one last week. We're in southern NH. She googled the description and concluded they it was a Coopers Hawk.

So he has a good line of sight

I took down several invasive huge Honeysuckle bushes a couple months ago. They are the white flowers to the right of the Red Headed Woodpecker below.


Honeysuckle Info: http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/lifestyles/home-garden/how-to-stop-honeysuckle-invasion/nS4TM/

Growing up in Louisiana and Arkansas they were called either chicken Hawks or blue darters.

And killed mercilessly! When a young boy seeing a hawk was a rare treat. DDT did some damage, but every rural farmer shot them on sight.

I while I hate it, I can not say I would do different. My grandmother ordered 100 chicks each spring. Raised them and ate them all summer and in the fall killed and canned the remainder. In the 50s when they got power she froze them.

Those Hawks literally took food out of my papaw's children's mouths. And they are called chicken Hawks for a reason.

Regardless it has always givin me a good feeling to see Hawks and now I see them daily.

Have a nice evening.