Raining Feathers

Sometimes it rains raindrops, and sometimes it rains feathers. We were walking along a trail beneath some Douglas-firs the other day, when a shower of feathers floated down on our heads. We backed up and looked above us to see where these were coming from, and there was a Cooper's Hawk busy de-feathering his latest catch. We brushed off the feathers and stood for a while, watching as he systematically plucked and dropped the feathers. They floated slowly on the light breeze to litter the forest floor below. A mixed flock of small birds were chattering around him: chickadees, juncos, a kinglet. They didn't sound alarmed, the danger was over. This was our second Cooper's Hawk in a short distance of 30 feet. The first one was perched low on a tree branch in a nearby hedgerow, keenly searching the ground below it. Cooper's Hawks will move swiftly through tangles of branches to catch their prey, so the hedgerow was good hunting territory--lots of small birds flitting about. Surprisingly, this bird let us get very close to photograph it--it seemed more focused on food than us. Both of these birds were juveniles, with yellow eyes.

Cooper's Hawk with prey

The other Cooper's Hawk, on the hunt

There is a good, detailed write up on the Cooper's Hawk on E-Fauna BC which shows the distribution of this species in British Columbia.

Here is a good link for tips on separating Cooper's Hawks from Sharp-shinned Hawks, always a challenge!