Birds of prey keep gentler pals away from feeders
It’s always interesting to hear what’s showing up at bird feeders. And I’m glad I don’t often get calls like Pat Creighton’s.
She lives in Oshawa near the lake and keeps her feeders topped up with sunflower and niger seeds year-round. But since late November she hasn’t seen one bird in her yard -- no mourning doves, no cardinals, no house finches, no sparrows.
“Where are all the birds?” she asked me, clearly baffled. I was puzzled too, even as I pictured swift-flying predators swooping down on her busily feeding flocks, sending them off in a panic. Could a raptor spook local birds so badly they never come back?
Whatever elements may be at play in Pat’s neighbourhood, I know for a fact lots of readers have witnessed raptors paying surprise visits to their feeders. Sometimes the hungry hawks are successful at catching lunch and sometimes not. At times they sit around on a fence post afterward, providing photo ops. Many readers have e-mailed me pictures of hawks they wanted to identify or just to share.
Ninety-nine per cent of the time, it’s an accipiter, a family of raptors strong and agile enough to pursue fleeing songbirds through a woods and catch them. Long tails and short wings help them manoeuvre.
Though the three accipiter species are different sizes, telling them apart can be tricky, especially if you catch just a glimpse. Females are larger than males, providing a confusing gradient of sizes.
Also confusing is colouration. All adults have grey wings and backs, all juveniles brown, with brown-streaked breasts. They all have banded tails.
Some helpful ID tips: About as long as a blue jay, a sharp-shinned hawk has a squared-off tail and a small head. The Cooper’s hawk, more crow length, has a larger head and rounded tail. The northern goshawk, sometimes mistaken for a red-tailed hawk, has faint bands on its slate-grey tail as an adult, uneven bands on its grey-brown tail as a first-year bird.
Size of prey taken can also help determine species. The sharpy that dive-bombed our feeder last week ended up with a tiny junco in its yellow fist. A few days later, we found fresh feathers where a mourning dove had been on the menu for a Cooper’s hawk. If a raptor is chasing a grouse, squirrel or crow, it’s gotta be a goshawk.
Nature queries: mcarney@interlinks.net or 905-725-2116.
Durham resident Margaret Carney, in addition to writing nature-appreciation columns, has published several children’s books.