A Squirrel Evades a Coopers Hawk

That is most certainly an immature accipiter, and the size looks right for Cooper’s Hawk It is interesting to see video of an accipiter hunting rodents, rather than birds. They do take rodents often, even though they most often hunt birds.

The squirrel was lucky that it happened on an immature hawk, rather than a more experienced adult.

I live in the suburbs but border a major river so close enough for “visitors”.

Anyways my front flower bed was getting torn up so I went to look at my “game camera” aka front door in cam. Found the culprit, Armadillo but also found possum, raccoon, and even a cat chasing down a small bunny right in front of the door RIP. Lots of activity at like 4 in the morning.

I had a frame by frame look in the editor and am going by the tail feather colors to guess it is. Coopers hawk. Plus they are common enough. Not often we get to see a chase.

Everytime a hawk is in the area birds scatter from the bird feeder and some crash into our windows. Even eagles have come around when the winters are bad. Can’t say for sure but we think we lost a cat or two to them. Have seen hawks with rabbits in their talons up in the trees.

Shout out for possums and coons. We had a football size yellow jacket nest under our porch. Something tore it open and ate the bees. It wasn’t a bear because the vegetation wasn’t trampled. Now something is working on a ground nest of aggressive yellow jackets in the garden. Saves me the trouble.

Yeah, I think you’re right, because the red-shouldered hawk has a banded tail, but is more stubby and usually perches in a more vertical position. And the white breast is more like an accipiter than a red-shouldered.

Edit: just realized that you’re in NM, so the red-shouldered and broad-winged hawks aren’t likely to even be there.

What a great video! Thanks MtnDon. We go falconing on Sundays with a Harris and a Red Tail. They are trained to stay away from Fox Squirrels, as those often damage the bird’s feet before it’s over. As for the other squirrels and rabbits, the raptors rarely miss. The Redtail is aggressive, the Harris is a lollygagger (smile).

We capture the birds, train them, hunt them, then release them back to the wild a couple years later. It’s an equitable arrangement I think. As captive hunters, the raptors have an easy life and are well attended. In the wild their chances of survival are slim. Once released they are mature experienced hunters, able to make their own way. They are released with a tag, and their life after captivity can be documented. It’s a privilege to be alongside these apex predators, even if only briefly. You can go here to see a few more images:

Note: I lived at 8500’ in the Sacramentos near Ruidoso for 20 years. Sometimes I long for those snowy peaks.

Do the birds try to bite you when you take away the catch? Seems like they could really do some damage with that sharp beak, take out an eye or piece of nose or ear…

Nice bird pictures. Thanks for linking to that page

My limited experience of trained birds is that they are gentle and patient with us humans. But I can tell you from personal experience that wild birds can do a lot of damage to a human face.

I volunteered to help at raptor trapping/banding blinds run by people with US Fish & Wildlife Service permits in the 1990s. This was on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. One day I was doing my normal job of weighing and measuring the wing chord on a female Cooper’s Hawk, before applying a special tail tag I was ordered to apply that year. and then releasing the bird, as usual. I lost my grip on the hawk’s legs for a second, and sure enough she raked me across my face with her talons.

I wanted to be very careful not to hurt the bird, so I had to react carefully and slowly to get the bird’s legs under control, unfortunately for my face. This bird was at the top of the weight and size scale for a Cooper’s Hawk, so my face was bleeding badly. Those talons are sharp as razors. The beak is also very dangerous on a wild bird. You have to respect them and know what you’re doing.

I knew some guys who used to band Great Horned Owl chicks. They wore football helmets, to protect themselves in case the parents came around and decided to get into a brawl.

Wow that’s intense. Do you have a relaxing hobby like juggling running chainsaws locked at WOT?

kennybobby. They don’t really want to hurt you. You’re too big to be prey or they would. For the raptors, it’s all about food. When wrestling their kill away, something else is offered as an alternative, which they know is coming as a matter of experience. Better to get a small bite of something than nothing at all (smile), so they will give up on the kill and settle for a tidbit.

You’re welcome. Once in awhile I get a picture posted and most of the time I goof it up, hence the link instead of a pic, har. I’ll figure it out, again, maybe.

Cool video. The squirel escaped the hawk’s direct dive because he changed direction twice in a split second, the hawk only corrected its flight trajectory once.

Great video. What game cam do you have?

Watched a Peregrine hit a Raven a couple weeks back I regret not getting it on camera. I’d seen the Peregrine do a full dive straight down just 5 min earlier and then heard a bird making sounds I wasn’t familiar with -but other than part of the dive I hadn’t seen anything. Turned out to be a Raven but not making raven sounds. 2nd try the Peregrine didn’t get it clean as the Raven came flying towards me and at the very last moment ducked into the firs and the Peregrine seemingly came out of nowhere, but it the Raven get a glancing blow that from 40 feet away sounded remarkably like a kid hitting a pinyata full on with a baseball bat.
Peregrine flew off as if nothing had occurred.

A Victure HC200. A cheapy, about $45 when I got a couple of years ago. It’s based on a camera design that was cutting edge about 9 years ago. Still uses a micro usb connector. But it works well enough and if stolen doesn’t break the bank.

It has a decent “trigger” time. OK lens. Not the best but it works

Awesome! That’s even more impressive.

Reminded me of this video

Whoa! He could jump like The Bat Man!

OMG! LMFAO! :laughing: