This female Cooper’s Hawk is the quintessential predator.
Somewhere between the capture of a BIG female Cooper’s Hawk in the morning, my talk to a class at McMaster in the afternoon, and the banding of 4 Northern Saw-whet Owls (from just the 1st two net rounds – there may have been more….but I went home for some shut-eye), we managed to band another 62 birds.
Our second Cooper’s Hawk of the season – a female.
Interestingly the hawk was caught in a net that, at the same time as the hawk, contained 2 flickers, a robin and a cardinal – all desired food items, size-wise, for a bird of this size (it weighed over 500 g.).
As mentioned, we caught 2 owls on each of the first two net rounds at night. I am looking forward to the pictures from Bob Fotheringham to show differences in colouration in the birds. The oldest bird (ASY) had quite a white face compared to the others….some might even say “grizzled”.
Banded 63:
1 Cooper’s Hawk
1 Downy Woodpecker
2 Yellow-shafted Flickers
1 Blue Jay
6 Golden-crowned Kinglets
5 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
4 Hermit Thrushes
1 American Robin
2 Myrtle Warblers
3 Northern Cardinals
2 Chipping Sparrows
1 Field Sparrow
2 Fox Sparrows
4 Song Sparrows
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
4 White-throated Sparrows
4 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
2 Dark-eyed Juncos
2 Purple Finches
5 House Finches
10 American Goldfinches
[Note: Saw-whet Owls are reported on the day after the night before…]
Rick