While trying to pass a hummerless winter, I put regular bird feeders out and attract all these pretty birds...





THEN this shows up!!!

What a lovely problem to have!

A very nice problem to have. I only seem to have winter chickadees here.

Steve
Martinsville, In
Heat zone 6
Sunset zone 35

Steve I do the same thing you do to pass the winter away. I keep feeders where I can see one anywhere I am in the house.

Dianne

Southeast Alabama

Heat Zone 8

Sunset Zone 31

I haven't seen any hawks this winter but had several last year.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Nice pictures of your birds!
I have a regular young Cooper's hawk visiting. An adult Cooper's and a red-tailed hawk also show up often. I enjoy watching them, and the small birds are usually quick to make themselves scarce. I found a pile of dove feathers once though.

Priya
Zone 7, Maryland

I have several feeders out as well during the winter, which of course means a Cooper's hawk also visits. Just two days ago I found a large pile of (stop reading here if you love cardinals) red feathers. Nature is a cruel mistress sometimes...

I wonder if hummers would take on a hawk? I've seen one of my males zoom straight into a cardinal that was perching on "his" shepherd's hook (holding "his" feeder)!

Ron, I have no fewer than 3 Cooper's Hawks [like yours] and a Sharp-shinned Hawk that make my seed feeders part of their daily circuit. A Peregrine Falcon has also blitzed through a couple of times this winter. Whether you want them to be or not, your feeders are the focal point of all the birds and other wildlife in the neighborhood. Along with the invited guests, you will host a variety of freeloaders of one stripe or another.

You can adjust the variety of birds you attract by the variety of food offerings you put out. You can also offer your birds some protection while they eat. Many birds are terribly unwary while they are eating at feeders.

All of my hummer feeders are placed inside large-mesh wire cages. There are door openings that the birds can readily fly through and there is no bottom. The hummers cannot become caught accidentally, but they are protected from avian marauders. To protect the birds from earth-bound predators, I hang the cages upside down or tie strings across the bottom.

There are seed feeders available that have a similar wire mesh around them to exclude larger birds such as Blue Jays. These would permit your smaller birds to eat without being snatched off the feeder. Recently, I saw a wire enclosure to offer safety to ground feeding birds. It was made of a large mesh, plastic coated wire [like 'hog wire] and it sat up 3 or 4 inches off the ground [or in this case a sheet of plywood]. Sparrows and such can enter and leave through the large mesh, but no predator can pounce effectively. The homeowner said he'd purchased it from a 'wild bird store' but he didn't recall where or what the device was called. I'd buy one if I could find it, but I may have to get it someone to make something similar.

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Nancy L Newfield
Casa Colibrí
Metairie, Louisiana USA
USDA Zone 9

In years past, when I had a seed feeder out and away from the house, I had a Cooper's Hawk that visited regularly. It sort of expands the meaning "bird feeder." There are also Sharp-shinned Hawks around here, but I don't think I ever saw one hunting at our feeders. We have lots of Red-tails, too, but although they give the birds a scare, they seem to leave them alone. I'm sure they would grab a marauding squirrel, though.

When the feeder was placed some distance from the house, the Cooper's Hawk would come in and grab the unwary. It would use the house as a screen, or sometimes emerge from the gully behind our house and give everyone a nasty surprise. Seemed like it was one Mourning Dove after another, and never anything else. Although Mourning Doves are fast fliers once they get going, seems like they're always the last to take fright, and that makes them vulnerable. I went out to my car one day when the hawk was on the prowl and a Song Sparrow burst out from somewhere underneath the car and flew past me. It was taking refuge from those hawks, I'll bet.

Now I have only a small suction cup feeder on an upstairs window, and I haven't seen the hawk this year. It was more than one individual hawk, too. One was clearly an immature, but there was also an adult with shocking ruby eyes. Scary!

Hello Ron,
Well, it's the circle of life...they have to eat too...whether it's in one's own backyard, somebody else's, or in a nearby field. For us, it's an added bonus to be able to see the beauties that they are. We love seeing the Hawks...Sharp Shinned, Cooper's and Red-tailed (both immature and adult of all Hawks). We even had a Northern Goshawk in 2007! We have both caged and uncaged feeders. We don't think that having caged feeders helps much anyway since it's really just helpful in trying to deter the squirrels...well, and that's only sometimes...LOL
You'll see by the pics I'll add to the post...
Everyone has differing opinions about having Hawks and squirrels as a part of their backyard "habitat". Either one feels they are terrible and/or annoying...or they enjoy them. Personally, we enjoy they're company and being able to see them...sometimes it's like having "National Geographic" in real life and not just on TV or in a book! Absolutely awesome!
Here's a bunch of pics...which includes part of our backyard habitat, several Hawks and our 6 resident squirrels...




















Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Susan Louise your last picture looked just a little bit like my back yard and gave me quite a chuckle

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Hello Penny,

Aren't they fun! With all the goodies I put out for them, it makes one wonder why they still want to bother climbing the poles...
Maybe they think they're missing something better or just have an instinct to just at least investigate

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Susan Louise

If I put out the Dey (slow toasted in the oven)bread cubes with peanut butter and rolled in cracked corn mine don't go near the bird feeaders. They pig out on the little toasted squares until they are full and then go on their way. I have to make sure to put it out for them as soon as the first one comes down out of the tree or else they head right for the suet cakes. I have now devised a method of deterring them from the suet cages and it is working well so far.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Penny,

I put lots of peanuts, sunflower hearts and cracked corn and raisins in the ground tray feeder for them. I've also put out apples...but ours just don't like fruit...maybe just in warmer months. Since there are so many, and the most that fit in the feeder at a time is 4 (and that's only on days they can tolerate being that close to one another), the other ones will search for other food sources, which is fine with us...it make for fun pic taking too...LOL


Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Susan Louise,



What kind of squirrel are those you have in your photos? They have alot of red on them but they don't quite seem like the Red Squirrels I've seen in New England.

Where are the photos from? Your signature says Connecticut and Nebraska.

Great pics Ron and Susan Louise. I had a very sad incident two summers ago with a Cooper's hawk. I had always hung reg bird feeders in the summer as we have lots of finches, doves, cardinals, and while having a quiet family dinner with my brother (another bird enthusiast from AZ) outside on our deck, two blurrs went flying past us at lightening speed and quite close. I followed the images up to the second story where a beautiful morning dove smashed into the window and proceeded to fall into our above ground pool right below. My brother and I ran to the pool and plucked out the poor thing. But it was too late, she had broken her neck. We live next to a huge state owned natural park so we have lots of wild life close by. But I've never seen a chase like that. I took in the feeders after that for a short time, but later on put them back out. It's the law of nature I guess, I just don't like seeing it first hand.

kathy t.
shebly twp., MI
Zone 5/6

Hello Ron,
Well, my signature says "from" Connecticut because I lived there for 40 years before moving to Nebraska when I got married on Valentine's Day in 2000...which is why I put "live in" Nebraska as well. I don't mean to confuse folks, seems simple, but whenever I can, I always add I'm from CT. It's my home state and where my heart is when it comes to living somewhere...and always will be...
So, the squirrel pics are from here in Nebraska and taken about a month or so ago.

Hello Kathy,
Sorry to hear your sad story...but unfortunately, if you feed birds, you're also inviting the ones that prey on them. I'm really at a loss at what to say since I do enjoy having the Hawks around and seeing nature happen before my eyes. I don't see much difference between this and watching the Animal Planet or Discovery shows watching Bald Eagles or other big birds/animals get their meals...and DH and I watch them all the time. To me, they are just so fastinating to watch.

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Some years back, a friend who feeds birds told me that he had a hawk that seemed to have learned how to deliberately drive birds into his picture window. It would approach from a certain angle, I guess, and almost inevitably a Mourning Dove would crash into their window and fall to the ground. The hawk then had an easy time grabbing the poor unfortunate dove. I never witnessed this, but my friend thought it was intentional and that the hawk had learned how to make this happen with regularity.

Kristin,
I guess each Hawk just has their own way of getting their meal...whatever works for them. I've never seen a fat Hawk, so they certainly don't over eat or kill more birds for their own survival more than necessary...unlike humans who enjoy hunting and killing birds with guns. As for myself, I don't enjoy hearing stories about "Bambi" getting bulleted. It's one thing if someone/a community is living on the animals, but another when it winds up being stuffed like a trophy. That makes me sadder than birds killing other birds/small animals to survive. We have our next door neighbors totally upset with us because we are feeding the birds and then the Hawks are also enjoying all the baby bunnies here too.
Guess we are supposed to feed the birds and police for Hawks so they don't eat other birds or bunnies too...so they are suppose to starve because nobody wants them to eat...Good Grief! Poor Hawks I say...

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

It is survival of the fittest. I hate to see them get the doves also, but they are very interesting to watch, especially when they run on the ground. Trees & especially shrubs are very important. I have many more birds than my Sister across the street since her feeders are in the middle of her backyard with no where to go. All my feeders are near shrubs. Mugo Pines & my Yews are very protective. Still don't know my hawks well enough yet. I assume this is a Cooper's. This is the first year I saw 2 together. It was pretty far away but here's the best of the couple I've been able to get of him/her:



Joni
Elwood, IL
Zone 5