Backyard and Beyond

A screaming Blue Jay, a dark silhouette in the tree. If the bird sits still long enough — no guarantee with the jumpy Accipiters — maybe we can get around to the front end and……see if there’s a bit of color on the front end of the raptor situation. This is an adult Cooper’s Hawk. I almost always see juveniles, who have dark streaking up and down the chest instead of this russet banding. And I never see two adults in the same tree. This was a few minutes after spotting the first bird, which flew off only to land here. One of these birds was making a very curious sound. It sounded like a Blue Jay, actually (when in doubt about a bird sound, suspect the Blue Jays), but it was definitely one of these Accipiters. Because they both looked to be the same size, I think they were both females (the male Cooper’s is very much smaller than the female), so perhaps this sound was some intraspecies territorial trash-talk.

The nature of winter raptor watching: the anomaly in the trees. (Click to get a bigger version of this image.)