Red Tail Hawk (warning dead animal)

[shootist]

Really love the hawk pics. We have several pairs of them near my home. I live right on the outskirts of the city and have really started to see a lot more of them in the past several years. They were all but wiped out in this area from pesticides and poisons accumulating in the food chain due to bad farming. It has taken 25-30 years for them to come back after most of the nastys were banned for use. other birds of prey are also on the upswing around here including some falcons that were released 6 or 7 years ago and continue to breed and live right downtown. Also around the same time the falcons were reintroduced,several pairs of bald eagles were released about 50 miles from my home. Today there are many bald eagles some ranging within 10-15 miles of my house. When you said dead animal I thought for sure the hawk would have a small kitten or puppy,they do well keeping some of the stray animal populations in check :}

 

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[Monty]

Never had a problem with hawks or eagles attacking small animals in my neighborhood, but a couple of years ago a very large owl attacked my small dog. Right before daylight one morning I heard an awful racket in my back yard and went out to check...shotgun in hand as per procedure around my house. My little dog was bloody around his head and neck at first I couldn't figutre out what he had got hold of. Then I happened to look up and on the highline over my back fence was a very large gray colored owl. I shooed him off...no, not with the shotgun, and after daylight I found quite a few loose feathers by the back fence. I guess he and my little dog had one heck of a fight. I don't know if he actually attacked my dog or if he landed in the yard and the dog attacked him. I saw the owl only one time since and my dog dug up my coin garden and ran away from home. So, draw your own conclusions. Were they in it together? I smell a conspiracy!

Now about my two little hawks. I got a closer look at them this morning as they landed in a big cottonwood tree in my neighbor's yard. I have been all over the net trying to find a pic to identify them but no luck. They are very small for a raptor, about the size of a large pigeon. Their underbody and beneath the wings is a dark to medium gray color. Their upper body except for their heads is dark black or brown, hard to tell in the early light. Their heads have a fluffy appearance and is a lighter gray then their underbody. They have a small sharp beak and their eyes are circled with a horizontal black patch runing abut half the length of their heads. Their tails are short and almost triangular but fairly wide. The fly at tree top level and dive and swoop as they go. I can't recall seeing a hawk or falcon like them as long as I have been around these parts and that's a long time! Bluejays hate them and every time they alight several jays will come in and land by them and harass them. I have tried to get a pic of them but it's hard to catch them sitting still and my camera's zoom lens isn't very powerful. Continued: Monty

 

[stoney56]

Monty, just curious. Do they have a couple of narrow white stripes on the underside of the wing. Was thinking of what we call a bull bat. It's not a bat but a bird that dives and swoops around tree level feeding on flying insects. Sometimes it seems like it can outperform a P51 with it's maneuvers.

 

[ronwoodcraft]

Monty, just curious. Do they have a couple of narrow white stripes on the underside of the wing. Was thinking of what we call a bull bat. It's not a bat but a bird that dives and swoops around tree level feeding on flying insects. Sometimes it seems like it can outperform a P51 with it's maneuvers.

Stoney, What you are descrbing sounds like a Night Hawk, they have a small beak and feed on insects. Might be what Monty is looking at, but if they are feeding on small birds, could possibly be a Sharp shinned hawk, They are small and I think their main diet is song birds. I'm no expert....Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[COUNTRY GIRL]

Monty could this American Kestrel be your bird of prey?

http://www.buteo.com/kestrel.html

 

[Monty]

No, it's not a kestrel, it's underside is solid gray, no pattern. It definately is a bird of prey, not an insect eater as it has the hooked hawk type beak. Night Hawk? don't know I'll have to look it up and see a pic. Monty