My wife and I were sitting in the living room, she reading, me 'computing', when we heard a very loud BOOM! I knew something had hit the house but my wife thought someone had either fired a shotgun very close to the house or shot the house. I knew none of that was correct, but I didn't really know what had hit the house, or broken off of it.

I got up to look out the window on 'that' side of the house and what to my surprise do I see but a Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii) mantled over a magpie (Pica hudsonia)! Apparently, the hawk had stooped on the magpie and the house had gotten in the way of the "follow through".

The hawk flew off with the magpie before I could get to my camera, but here's the murder scene from the dining room window. The 'divit' is where the magpie was being held; the impression of the hawk's tail is at 6 o'clock, and it's wing-tips are obvious.

All together, it was pretty cool. While I like magpies (they're corvids), I really like the accipiters. They are bird-eaters that catch their prey on the wing and can fly through the woods like a fighter jet when pursuing their prey!

Paul

Wow! That is really cool. Cooper Hawks are bad JuJu on my Quail as they can dart through the timber like a Star Wars Speedster!

There isn't much "in nature" that I like more to see than an accipitor hawk chasing another bird through the woods. I think it puts cheetahs chasing gazelles to shame. Unfortunately, the opportunities to see such events are few and far between, and on top of that, they don't last but a couple of seconds. Right when we moved into this house about 18 years ago, I saw a goshawk (Accipitor gentilis) chasing an American robin (Turdus migratorius) through the adjacent woods. I recall only seeing one other similar aerial chase between that first one and this one, (for a grand total of three in 18 years).

Paul

One less Magpie, works for me...

Quote from: j0e_bl0ggs;150121One less Magpie, works for me...

Me too!

I like magpies. Had a few that I hand-raised. Smart little buggers, and gorgeous when you get close enough to see them.

Paul

Not so nice when there are squadrons around hammering all the other dickybirds...

Well, I "like" bears too, but I hunt and kill them.

North American magpies (Pica hudsonia)don't 'mob' like the magpies you have over there (Pica pica). One almost never sees a group of P. hudsonia larger than a family unit. P. hudsonia tend to be more territorial, therefore 'fewer and farther between'.

Paul

Honestly have never seen so many of them...

Paul, that happens around here often but they don't hit the house. Very interesting. I like all birds of prey but not overly fond of Coopers or Sharpshins. I see both on a weekly basis chasing or killing birds. Cooper hawks are serial killers of chickens. Had one kill 5 pullets in one raid. Left 3 laying to waste. They're as bad as weasels & mink. The resident red tail hawks never killed any of my chickens but protected them from Coopers. A neighbor down the road a couple hundred yards has around 100 chickens free ranging & the red tails go down there & watch them but have never killed one in the 11 years the hawks have been here. .......Paul H

Most of the animals that I have raised or been around that were 'hard core' predators, would "binge" if given the chance. For example, weasels - of all types - will kill for the 'sport' if they are not hungry. All of the acciptors (goshawks, Cooper's hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, harriers, and sparrowhawks), are all 'serious' predators. (The harriers and sparrowhawks do not focus on birds for their prey though.) As such, they kill for 'sport' when there is a glut of prey. Like in a chicken yard. Falcons will do the same. Personally, I think they simply cannot 'not' be the predatory machine that they are. At any rate, I like them all. That's not to say I haven't 'dealt' with them when necessary. Like when they're killing my ducks and chickens.

Paul

Cool shot Paul may need CIS.

Paul H, that is interesting. I have chickens at home and we had a couple of kites hovering over our yard one day pretty high up in the sky and they decided to land on a large gum tree and began watching our yard. I put the chickens back in their coop just to be sure.

When my kids were small we lived in a house that had an old horse hitching post outside the front bay window of the house.  One morning I noticed a sparrow hawk (which is not common is the area) on the hitching post with a small bird in its grasp. I called the kids over to take notice of the hawk and its prey. They thought it was pretty cool until the sparrow hawk started shredding the bird for breakfast!

Wow, bit graphic for the kids that one Nelsdou.

I love birds of prey.