Bird-Eat-Bird

An accipter (probably a Cooper's hawk), having just finished a meal (note the feathers at its feet).

Accipiters - hawks that hunt and eat other birds - are well-known for staking out bird feeders in winter and picking off chickadees, titmice, nuthatches and other small prey: we feed the small birds sunflower seeds, and the small birds become food for the bigger birds.

Bill Kuebler, who works as our land steward (and who used to be a photojournalist) snapped this picture in the snow two days ago. He and I think it's a Cooper's hawk, although it might be a sharp-shinned hawk. The two are very similar looking but the Cooper's is bigger (although to confuse things even more, the female of each species is bigger than the male, so a female sharp-shinned can be mistaken for a male Cooper's).

This accipiter has just eaten a small bird, on land that Westchester Land Trust holds a conservation easement on: note the scattering of feathers at the bird's feet.

by Tom Andersen