A couple weeks ago, a small hawk caught and killed a small bird just off the porch in our back yard. After a bit of research, I think it was a Cooper’s hawk.
Unfortunately, by the time, I got outside to get some closer pictures, the hawk had already flown away with its meal.
A picture of a Cooper’s hawk in the backyard.
Cooper’s hawks mainly eat small birds caught in flight and the hawks are too small to seriously bother our chickens.
The hawk on top of its kill.
Click through for a video of the hawk removing the feathers.
Here is a video of the hawk plucking out the other bird’s feathers so it can eat.
For more information on Cooper’s Hawks in general, click here.
The summer before last, we saw a Cooper’s Hawk a couple times behind our building in Williamsburg (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Coopers_Hawk/id). We also saw a kestrel but only once (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Kestrel/id). But these days, in our new place (also in Williamsburg), we see redtails all the time, but they’re pretty common in the city as hawks go (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/id).