Blog reader Amy sent us these pics of a hawk that stopped by to rest on her backyard fence on Thursday near 41st and Cabrillo.
“I fear it wanted our two chickens! It sat for a while, flew around a bit, and then finally lost interest and took off,” a relieved Amy wrote.
Initially she thought it was a peregrine falcon, but a relative helped her correctly identify it as a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk. It’s a good thing too – the story might have ended very differently if it had been a falcon.
“My sister in law claims it would have just swooped in and gored the chicken immediately, not sat around like this hawk just thinking about it,” Amy said.
I guess this hawk had eaten recently enough that a couple of backyard chickens didn’t seem worth the effort.
We once saw a hawk at Baker Beach swoop down, snatch a vole out of the ice plant, take it back up to the tree limb over our heads and proceed to eviscerate it for lunch. Quite a sight.
Sarah B.
I, unfortunately, had an incident in Nebraska where a Cooper’s Hawk flew into me on my motorcycle and did not survive. I did a bit of research with Raptor Recovery of Nebraska to figure out it was a Cooper’s Hawk. They generally hunt by swooping low and gliding really fast to snatch their prey up. Which makes sense, as far as this one ultimately not messing with the chicken. No room to glide and I’m guessing the chickens are probably about the same size as the hawk.
Beautiful animal, but how ’bout a picture of those chickens?
This or another juvenile Cooper’s Hawk has been flying around 10th and Fulton. Ever since they fledged they have been keeping away the pesky pigeons that try to nest in the eaves of my house. A few years ago a Redtail Hawk devoured a pigeon in our back yard leaving the feathers and a bloody carcass. I like the hawks and hope that they stick around.
A full grown chicken, crow, ravens, are too big for a Cooper, they like prey about the size of a pigeon max down to Starlings and doves. In the Presidio where Lincoln starts to drop down towards Bakers beach, you see Redtails hovering motionless in the strong winds a few feet off the ground waiting for gophers to appear.
These are great! Thanks for sharing them and the story.
Fowl horror story share- a few years back across from French campus on 6th I watched two crows ripping the heck out of this pigeon. The feathers floating around looked like SF’s pillow fight. yeeesh
Here is a blurry picture of Coopers hawk chicks I took while they were in their nest in June. The nest had 3 chicks and was in the Coniferous forrest area adjacent to 41st Ave behind the dog run area in GGP:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alchemicalnature/7422609108/lightbox/
*its blurry because of the distance 🙂
I wouldn’t be surprised if its from this same family of Coopers
San Francisco is a major stop along the Pacific Flyway for migrating birds of prey. That is why people might be seeing an increased number of raptors in the skies above San Francisco right now. They congregate at Hawk Hill in the Marin Headlands before they make the leap over the Golden Gate to the Richmond District and other points south.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Flyway
Yes Sue, I used to volunteer years ago on the hawk watch program in the GGNRA. At that time, the more rarer birds were the Peregrine falcon, Golden Eagle, Red Shouldered hawk. But I have seen many Red Shouldered hawks in the Presidio, Richmond District and GGP.
Great story and photos. Love the nature bits on the blog. Keep it up.
Beautiful photos. Thanks so much for posting.
Despite eating the chickens (easy prey!), these pictures show how beautiful and majestic this bird of prey is. We have one that has been eating pigeons on 9th Ave and Clement. I always know when it is around..the pigeons scatter and the gulls go bonkers. Lately, when I go outside in the morning, I see feathers strewn everywhere but not bird carcasses. I am grateful when the hawk is around because I hate the pigeons. The elderly think it is their responsibility to feed them rice and seeds. All this does is makes the birds fatter, poop more, and bring in more rats.
@Gary:
You may be right…I think my hawk is a Red Tail, not a Coopers.