northeast-flora-and-fauna

It's almost like this Red-tailed Hawk wanted to avoid a misidentification so its prominently displaying its red [1] tail. Since I'm pretty confident that birds don't really care what we identify them as, I'm assuming this positioning was a prerequisite to a good tail-preening session. Still, when people can't see that iconic red tail [2], misidentifications can run wild. The most over-enthusiastic people will claim to have seen an eagle, and I have to admit that a Golden Eagle does look a bit like a very big Red-tailed Hawk [3]. Probably the only thing that prevents more widespread misidentification is that the Red-tailed Hawk is quite a bit more common than our other hawks, like Red-shouldered Hawks , Cooper's Hawks , and Northern Harriers . May 13, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 282423074, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] Yeah, I know, it's more of a burnt orange tail than a red one, but people used to refer to colors differently . [2] Techn...

I have to admit that I didn't recognize who this was at 1st. (I don't see a lot of Red-shouldered Hawks , and iNaturalist says they're critically imperiled in New Jersey.) The thin even stripes on the breast/belly reminded me of our accipiters , our Cooper's Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk , but their heads would have more color and their tails wouldn't have white stripes. Instead it turned out to be the buteo that resembles an accipiter. Though this is considered of our most vocal hawks (listen to its soothing music stylings here ), this 1 wasn't talking. Perhaps because it had its mouth full; it was clearly tearing apart and eating some small animal. This was taken adjacent to a canal, so frogs, small turtles, snakes, squirrels, rabbits, muskrats, and any number of small birds could have been its victim. Though some old-time birders considered Red-shouldered Hawks and Red-tailed Hawks to be arch enemies that wouldn't share a habitat, the Red-shouldered Hawk...

Here's a Northern Cardinal picture from last December. Similar to yesterday's post of a Gray Catbird , the cardinal had food on his mind, and I suspect those are more Multiflora Rose berries in his mouth. (At least those look like Multiflora Rose thorns on some of those branches.) Note that I said his/he; only the adult males have the flamboyant red plumage, and while some birds (I'm looking at you, American Goldfinch ) only have bright plumage during breeding season, the Northern Cardinal males look this way all year round. This is an interesting evolutionary "choice" that the Northern Cardinal has made. I'm sure their bright coloring has attracted unwanted attention from Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks , it probably does ensure that only the strongest, wiliest males survive to breeding season to pass on their genes to the next generation [1]. Although Northern Cardinals are common enough that we may take them for granted, people who haven't seen ...

Here's another Cooper's Hawk . I met this one last autumn, though we can potentially see them year round here in NJ. Many birds have a smaller/larger "twin" that makes identifying them difficult: Downy Woodpeckers and Hairy Woodpeckers American Crows and Common Ravens Lesser Yellowlegs and Greater Yellowlegs For their part, Cooper's Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks are also a source of confusion. While these pairs of birds would be pretty easy to distinguish side-by-side due to size differences, all too often you're not going to find them together. (The 2 hawks and the 2 corvids generally have a hostile relationship; the woodpeckers and shorebirds generally tolerate one another.) November 1, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 250356045, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

For Throwback Thursday here's a Cooper's Hawk from July of 2019. The hawk was trying to enjoy breakfast (which almost certainly consisted of one of our songbirds) when my camera and I interrupted it. My recollection is that this was the season when I had a pair of Cooper's Hawks nesting near my apartment complex [1]. Cooper's Hawks were called "chicken hawks" in the past, but they only weigh about a pound and are probably too small to tackle adult chickens. Chicks are probably a different story. Cooper's Hawks are somewhat unpopular with people maintaining bird feeders since they (and their smaller Sharp-shinned Hawk cousins) specialize in preying on small birds. I've heard though that these hawks aren't especially successful hunting around bird feeders though since the bird feeders have so many birds looking out for predators. (Foraging alone is probably more dangerous for passerines, doves/pigeons, and woodpeckers, which is why you frequently s...

It's Throwback Thursday, so let's talk about something I saw 4 years ago. (Some of you might be familiar with this story already.) A few years ago while wandering through a patch of woods trying to walk off my lunch, I encountered a hawk version of mixed martial arts. Initially I had heard a Red-tailed Hawk screaming [1] overhead, which I considered a little puzzling since I'd expect the noise to be advertising to all their potential prey to be on alert. I didn't get a visual of the hawk in flight though, and soon forgot about it. Then 15-20 minutes later, I heard a commotion in a little clearing off the trail. It turned out to be a couple of Red-tailed Hawks battling on the ground. (I don't know if the fight started in the air, though I wouldn't be surprised if it did.) Initially I couldn't tell what was going on. I saw 1 hawk that seemed to be thrashing around and I wondered if it was hurt. Looking closer it became clear that there were 2 hawks involved, ...