Every now and again we’ll find a pile of gray bird feathers in our backyard, evidence that our local Cooper’s Hawk caught himself another meal. Yesterday my in-law mentioned how she saw the Cooper’s Hawk sitting on the bird bath we have in our back yard. And today the entire family was lucky enough to witness the same spectacle again.
Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) Perched on Backyard Bird Bath
We are a bit concerned as he appears to be injured. As you can see he was perched on just one leg most of the time and does look a bit thinner than the last time we saw him (haven’t been finding as many piles of feathers in our back yard recently either).
Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) Landing on Backyard Bird Bath
You can find more photos of our Cooper’s Hawk in the Backyard Wildlife section of the Archives.
(Technical Note: The photos are a bit soft due to the fact that I was shooting through our kitchen windows which have an anti-glare film on them. As soon as I tried going outside, as I expected, the Hawk took off.)
Update: My photo research assistant (my wife) thought there was something strange about the yellow eyes of the Cooper’s Hawk. Her research revealed that this is a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk, their eyes stay yellow until their older.