Raptors at Feeders
Hawks Eat Smaller Birds to the Dismay of Feeder Providers
The increase in bird feeding throughout the year across the United States and Canada has resulted in larger numbers of normally migratory birds remaining in the north during the winter and a northward range expansion of several one-time southern birds such as the northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) and the northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottis) . Many of these birds are able to switch between an insectivorous diet during the summer months and a seed-eating diet during the winter. Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus), tufted titmouse (Parus bicolor), American goldfinches (Carduelis tristis), red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), red-bellied woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus), and many others benefit from the warmheartedness of their human neighbors. In return, these birds give us many pleasurable hours of observation and provide the careful watcher insight as to their social behaviors.
A Not-so-Beneficial Effect of Bird Feeders
Often a watcher will see a crow-sized bird hunched over on a tree branch near the feeder. The bird may be observed pulling at a lump it holds down, scattering feathers to the wind. Cooper's hawks (Accipiter cooperii.) and the smaller sharp-shinned hawks (A. striatus) often feed in this manner. When observers attempt to get close enough to observe the prey, these hawk will grasp their prey in the talons of one foot and fly away from the intruder.
What Do the Hawks Eat?
Preferred prey are the common feeder birds: mourning doves (Zenaida macroura), northern cardinals, mockingbirds, pigeons (Columba livia), sparrows, chickadees, and titmice. The hawks capture the birds at or on their way to a neighborhood feeding station and carry them off to nearby trees. As a mourning dove is about one quarter the hawk's size, the dove would make a substantial contribution to a Cooper's hawk's daily energy needs, and even the smaller sparrows and chickadees help to keep the hawk alive.
Hawks at Bird Feeders
Birders note that when there is a hawk in the neighborhood, many smaller birds disappear and nearby feeders are avoided for a while. On first arriving at a feeding station, a Cooper's or the smaller sharp-shinned hawk, A. striatus, may take three or four birds in quick succession. The smaller birds rapidly become wary forcing the hawk to locate a nearby hiding place from which to dart from ambush to capture more prey. Usually the hawks only visit a feeding station for a short period of time each day and take but a bird or two. If a feeding station is especially busy or there is an exceptionally good hiding place nearby, the hawk may continue to visit for one or two weeks, but eventually the prey birds stay away, and the hawk moves on to find another location.
Click here to learn ways to discourage hawks from attacking birds.
Cooper's Hawks Hunt Late in the Day
Both hawk species burst out of dense foliage during the day, scattering and sometimes capturing smaller birds at feeders. They take advantage of the need for birds to find food regularly on short winter days.
In the northeast, evening falls shortly after 4 PM in the winter. Diurnal (day active) birds become less cautious as the day ends because they have only a short time left to find food and consume it. In addition to hunting at feeders, Cooper's hawks focus on intercepting unwary birds making their way to overnight refuges, often capturing prey after the sun sets. When successful, one will continue to feed well after dark.
Defensive Behavior of Prey
Some birds mob (harass) and scold these hawks. This behavior seems to bring other birds' attention to the predator, helping them locate it, and reducing the hawk's ability to capture prey unaware. Blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata ) and American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) mob hawks and owls all year long; while mockingbirds, red-winged blackbirds, and common grackles (Quiscalus quiscula) primarily mob these birds during the breeding season. During these short winter days, however, most birds merely leave the area when a hawk moves in.
Birders and Hawks
People that feed birds have mixed feelings about these small hawks: Some people despise them for killing “their” birds, others realize that hawks have to make a living like other animals do. What is intriguing is that some people who become angry about hawks taking feeder birds find nothing wrong with letting their pet kitty out of doors to wreak mayhem, or to feed feral cats which in sum kill hundreds of millions of birds each year. At least the hawks eat what they kill. But to some feeders of birds, the hawks' habit of eating in the open is quite unsettling.
Juvenile Cooper's Hawk
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