Bathing Beauty
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One of the more pleasant by-products of starting this website is that I’ve made new friends all over the world. Through their comments about the website and their emails to me, we’re getting to know each other, our families, our animals, and, wait!  What’s this I found in my email the other day?

Loyal reader Lisa, from Utah, sent this series of photos of a visitor to her backyard birdbath.

This, of course, piqued my curiosity.  Lisa knew that I would love seeing this fellow, but I’m not certain she expected any questions from me..  First and foremost, what kind of bird is this? A bird of prey, yes, but there are so many …

I immediately fired off an email to Lisa asking that, and also an email to a contact at California  Fish and Game.  

From Fish and Game I received this:

Looks like either a Cooper’s or a sharp-shinned hawk depending on the size, which is difficult to tell in the video.  However, both hawks prey on small birds and can be seen around backyard bird feeders waiting for dinner to fly by.

In the meantime, I shared the pictures with a few friends, and Annie Oakley wrote to offer her opinion.  Make that her opinions. A woman has a right to change her mind.  It started with this:

She made a nice stab at it and they do like small little birdie snacks but the head is really more like a small Falcon. The Sharp Shinned was a better guess as they are Accipiters and smaller in scale but the head and the way it is set on the body differs. So back to the library for the definitive answer which turns out to be a Merlin or Pigeon Hawk. They might both be females as they don't have a "mustache". The one in the tree seems to be immature. They are only a bit larger than a Blue Jay and do love eating other little birdies. They are typically found further north and many many in Canada.

pigeon hawk

About 5 minutes later, another email from her appeared:

I checked one more book and it had completely different pictures but I now think it may be a Coopers Hawk.

Coopers hawk

Then Lisa wrote to say she believed it was a sharp-shinned hawk and Annie Oakley did even more research, coming to the same conclusion.  So, sharp-shinned it is, until someone proves us all wrong.

I was having a lot of fun watching all of this information fly around in my mailbox.  Get it?  “Fly” around?

Lisa shared with me that she has an unusually large back yard with 6 pine trees that provide lots of cover for wildlife.  She has several birdfeeders out, so yes, the hawks do dine on some of the smaller songbirds from time to time.  She notices that the little birds go into hiding when cats or hawks are in residence.

The hawks even have the audacity to squawk at her if she goes outside while they’re hunting.  Perhaps they’re just hoping for her to toss some parakeets or canaries their way.