For the hawk fans out there

[sommrluv]

I have a question.

I'm honestly not a hawk fan, but I'm wildly curious. This morning while we're in the kitchen, I look out the window, and this large gray bird swoops down and perches on top of one of our lattices. I stand perfectly still and watch him, it looked at first to me like an enormously overgrown pigeon, but he's literally 3 feet from me, and I can see his feet, his yellow/black vicious looking beak, and a banded tail. He watched me intently and than took off when I tried to get DH over.

We have a bunch of feeders out right now as there's snow on the grown, and we also have a very long privet hedge with probably thousands of finches in it. My chickens are in a predator proof run, so I'm not worried, but I'm just curious what type of hawk it is.

The pictures of the gray hawk are pretty identical to it. But supposedly that's a tropical bird and I'm in NE PA. I did find sightings online in western pa and utah. Anyone have any idea what type of hawk it is or if it's common to see them so far north?

I live in a rural-ish area with a lot of farmland and state parks around, but I'm also pretty close to dense suburbs.

 

[sommrluv]

Oh nevermind, I think it's probably a goshawk or a juvenile peregrine.

We live not far from here:

http://data.hawkmountain.org/cgi-bin/count/viewdate.cgi

and they have a breed list.

 

[BitsyB]

Can you post a picture?

I'm not too far from you, the most common hawks around here are Red Tail, Sharp Shinned, and Cooper's Hawk (aka "Chicken Hawk", but I've read that chickens are not a large part of their diet).

But you may have one that's less common for your area- in winter I think some hawks range farther to search for food, and sometimes young birds can get off track during migration.

If you posted on line on a bird club's website that you have an unusual bird in your yard, you'd have bird watching people coming over to try to see it! Those birders can be crazy (no offense to any birders out there).

 

[sommrluv]

Definitely not looking for eager bird watchers on my front door step! LOL

I didn't have my camera...I froze when I saw it and I haven't seen it since, but our birdfeeders have been deserted for hours. Poor birds, between our terriers, the local cat population, and all the hawks, I doubt they have a chance! LOL

We're a couple blocks from a very big park with a lake that's about 5300 acres, so we see a LOT of hawks and eagles. I saw my first kettle the other day when I was out free-ranging the birds. Something like 50 hawks...made me want to run & hide.

 

[sourland]

Check out a picture of a male Cooper's hawk.

 

[birdicus7]

It sounds to me like a Kestrel. I have them here a lot. I just lost a bird to a hawk yesterday. You can see the attack in the snow so there's no doubt. Ate half of my RIR hen and was back this morning looking for breakfast. Needless to say the birds are on lockdown!

 

[AlbionWood]

Almost undoubtedly a Cooper's Hawk from your description. Other possibilities are Sharp-Shinned, which are nearly identical but smaller; and Goshawk, which are quite rare and MUCH larger. Peregrine is extremely unlikely, they don't hunt around houses like that. (They all look huge when they are only 3 feet away!)

 

[Lorije1]

oh believe me, Coopers hawks kill chickens... neighbor has lost 6 and I lost one today.

 

[woodmort]

Sounds to me like a Merlin (aka pigeon hawk), especially if it is gray and pigeon-sized. Either a Cooper or a Sharp-Shin would show a pinkish breast if a male or be brownish if female. Merlin's love to hang around bird feeders and pick off unsuspecting songbirds. Seeing one up close they always look bigger than they're supposed to be especially if it has it's feathers fluffed out to keep warm. I found a mess of chickadee feathers strewn around here yesterday so expect we have a like visitor too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(bird)