Another new yard bird! A Sharp-shinned Hawk on my fence, right after he finished off eating another of my yard birds.
Woo-hoo! I just finish posting about one new yard bird, go look at my feeders, and I see another new yard bird! Except this time, the new yard bird was eating one of my other birds! This is a Sharp-shinned Hawk. They’re pretty well known for targeting birds that come to feeders. Smart fellows. There have been multiple times where I’ve been watching feeders or small groups of birds, and one of these guys has swooped in and caught one of the.
Very cool birds! I’m glad my wife wasn’t around to see the carnage though…don’t think she’d have appreciated the Sharp-shinned Hawk like I did.
I gather it wasn’t feasting on the Common Redpoll.
I think it was actually! A little before this I looked at the feeders and there were at least 8 Common Redpolls, mixed in with about the same number of Goldfinches and a few American Tree Sparrows. Went out to look at the few feathers left after this, and my guess is that it was a Redpoll that this guy got.
Same story this evening here in Oregon.
The bird feeder attracts other feeding birds. Saw the hawk fly thru the feeding tweety birds and up onto a fence with what looked to be a sparrow in it’s talons. Went to grab a camera but he was gone when I got back. Started looking online for pictures and that led me to the Sharp Shinned Hawk and then to here, since the bird I was was sitting on a cedar plank fence just like in your picture.
Unlike you, my wife thought it was cool that we’re feeding all sorts of birds at the bird feeder. :^)
Cheers!
Kelvin in Eugene, OR