A Skilled Raptor Visits Our Water Bubbler

We have a couple bird feeders in our back yard, which borders on a desert wash. The wash is rich with wildlife, especially this time of year when a lot of breeding and nesting activity is going on with the birds, who vocalize constantly. Mammal species are having young, and the cold-blooded lizards and snakes are now active. (One of the secrets of walking in the desert with a camera is to watch every step - not only for cactus spines, but one of our 13-15 species of rattlesnakes. Despite how much I look for them, I haven’t actually seen very many, and am wishing for more photographic opportunities.)

The accipiter family of raptors in the US includes 3 species - Cooper’s Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk and Northern Goshawk. Our most common accipiter by far in the Sonoran Desert is the Cooper’s Hawk, and my understanding is that we have one of the highest densities of Cooper’s Hawks anywhere in the country. Sharp-shinned Hawks are here as well, but much less common, and they tend to prefer more wooded environments which in the desert are higher up in elevation in the ‘sky islands’ of mountain ranges that ring the desert basins. Our house sits at about 3,000 feet, and from the back yard we can see Mount Wrightson, at 9,400+. Northern Goshawks are pretty rare wherever they are found, and in Arizona, they would be found in the northeast and eastern mountains, not where we live.

Our bird feeders are always busy with House Finches and Lesser Goldfinches, with other visits from Curve-billed Thrasher, Cactus Wren, Abert’s Towhee and other resident and migrating birds. Our yard list since moving here in February of 2019 is 54 species. The proliferation of finches at the feeders of course attracts predators, and accipiters prey consists of smaller birds.

We have a pair of Cooper’s Hawks that are deadly efficient hunters. Lately only the male has been making ambush/stealth runs on the feeders, because the female is sitting on eggs in this year’s nest, which is only about half a mile up the wash from our house. The male is dutifully catching and bringing food to her. I have found a tree near the nest where the male likes to perch and am contemplating how to get some good images before they finish raising this year’s brood.

We also have a water bubbler in the yard, designed to attract birds to drink and bathe. It is popular, especially in the early morning, and it also draws in other critters. We have a Desert Cottontail that shows up reliably every day to tank up on water.

Early the other morning, I looked out and there sitting in the water relaxing - with one foot curled up under his belly feathers, was the male Cooper’s. He obviously had missed catching a bird, but decided to stay and chill a bit. We both snapped some images of him through the glass window, and a couple came out pretty well, as you can see in the included photo.

Adult Male Cooper’s Hawk on a Rest Break

Seeing how this bird hunts at our and our neighbor’s feeders, and in the wash itself, is pretty sobering - I wouldn’t want to be a bird of prey size! This guy takes advantage of the terrain and houses like a ground-hugging fighter jet coming in for a strike. I’ve seen it come from across our road, at full speed and only maybe 4 feet off the ground, head between our house and our neighbor’s, and then at the last second deke over the brick wall between the houses and wind up right in the middle of the feeding birds with no warning at all. The birds all scatter and sometimes one doesn’t make a getaway. Hawks have to eat too. Actually, despite their skill, estimates are that perhaps only 15% of their attacks result in catching something. Meaning when momma is on the nest and young ones are on the way, dad has to be working hard all day to bring home the food! Shortly after this image was snapped, he took off to other hunting locations in the area. Hopefully soon, we’ll see awkward juvenile birds from this guy’s nest flying around trying to learn the art of hunting as well as dad and mom.