Cooper's Hawk

Media: Photograph

A Cooper's Hawk that came into the backyard to take a sparrow from the bird feeder. I had been doing some yard work when I heard the panic as the birds headed for cover. The hawk chased a bird into shrubs in our neighbor's yard, but didn't capture it. The hawk then perched on the fence so ran in grabbed the good camera. Several times the hawk flew down into the neighbor's yard, but came back up empty taloned. Finally the sparrow flew between a gap in the fence with the hawk giving chase. The hawk did not make a capture so it flew up to a branch in a tall tree to assess the situation. After waiting patiently, but fruitlessly, for the sparrows to regroup at the feeder it decided to try for better pickings somewhere else. The sparrows returned about half an hour later.

Canon EOS Rebel T1i
Focal Length 250, f5.6, 1/250
Manual Focus
Distance 25'

This is the second time that I got a good photo of a hawk in our backyard. A few years ago I took this excellent photo.