I’ve been sitting here counting my birds for FeederWatch and a little flock of sparrows is foraging on the ground… nothing special. Suddenly, they fly to the tangled vines on my fence and bunch up in the center. A large gray and white bird swoops in, lands on a tree at the edge of my yard and by the time it takes me to yell, “WOW!”, he swoops off and the sparrows hightail it out of Dodge.
I’m terrible at identifying hawks and the like because I’m just getting into birds and I live in the city. Suburban neighborhhood, lots of houses, highways nearby. Not much open land to speak of without going 4 or 5 miles away.
Judging from my location, most likely candidates are Coopers Hawk, Northern Harrier, or a Merlin. Those vary wildly in size. I think I can rule out the Northern Harrier because it wasn’t THAT big. Coopers seems most likely because of where I am but I didn’t see any brown or reddish colors at all. Just gray and white.
Anyone have any thoughts? I wish I had pics but it happened so fast! I went outside but didn’t see him anywhere.
I’m terrible at identifying hawks and the like because I’m just getting into birds and I live in the city. Suburban neighborhhood, lots of houses, highways nearby. Not much open land to speak of without going 4 or 5 miles away.
Judging from my location, most likely candidates are Coopers Hawk, Northern Harrier, or a Merlin. Those vary wildly in size. I think I can rule out the Northern Harrier because it wasn’t THAT big. Coopers seems most likely because of where I am but I didn’t see any brown or reddish colors at all. Just gray and white.
Anyone have any thoughts? I wish I had pics but it happened so fast! I went outside but didn’t see him anywhere.