the_thea•19d agoMost Upvoted

Last Thursday was a nightmare with a Cooper's hawk at my feeder

I mean I get it, hawks gotta eat. But this one showed up right at 7 AM when the morning rush was in full swing and just sat on the fence for like 45 minutes. Scared off every finch and sparrow for like two blocks I think. Didn't even catch anything, just loomed there looking menacing. By the time it left I had maybe three birds come back all day. Anyone else have a hawk that just ruins your whole birdwatching session for zero reason?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendyg4319d ago

Used to be one of those people who thought hawks were cool and majestic and all that. Then one parked itself on my suet feeder pole for three hours straight last fall and I changed my tune real quick. It wasn't even hunting, just sitting there like a feathered landlord, and my whole backyard was dead silent the entire time. Cooper's hawks are the worst about that too, they're basically bullies who don't even follow through.

noahmartin19d ago

Feathered landlord" is exactly right, I'm stealing that. We had one that claimed our Japanese maple for like two weeks straight and it was basically a tiny tyrant. My little birds would just freeze, you could hear a pin drop in the whole yard, nothing moving, then you'd look up and there it was just staring down from a branch like it owned the place. The worst part was it never actually caught anything in our yard from what I could tell, just made everyone miserable for no reason. One time it chased a dove into our window screen and just sat there breathing heavy on the ground for five minutes before it flew off, didn't even eat it. Cooper's hawks are all show, zero follow through. They're like the guy at the gym who just flexes and never lifts.

barbarah1918d ago

Hold up though, I gotta push back a little on the "Coopers hawks are all show" thing. Ive had one actually take a mourning dove right off my platform feeder, clean kill, saw the whole thing. It wasnt pretty but it was efficient. So they do follow through sometimes. But yeah the rest of it is spot on, they definitely love the intimidation game more than the actual hunting. That dove hitting the window screen thing is wild though, I bet it was just stunned and confused. Coopers are ambush predators, they rely on surprise and if that fails they just look goofy sitting on the ground. Honestly I think the real problem is theyre too lazy to go find a real meal when they can just terrorize a whole yard for free.