Newest Member of the Neighborhood Hawk Family (PIX)

[rebbetzin]

This morning my neighbor called me at 5:30am, I was still asleep, to let me know he put a young hawk in my front yard. He found it with the mom near his swimming pool. The baby doesn't fly very well yet. It walked right up to him, he put out his hand and the young bird went right up in his hand (accidently cut my neighbor's finger with one of his very sharp talons) Anyhow he put the bird in a box with a towel and a bowl of water. His thinking was that the parent birds come frequently to my birdbath so... maybe the young bird would be safer in my yard than next to his swimming pool.

But, by the time I got dressed, and went out in the front yard, the box was empty! I was afraid maybe one of the neighborhood cats got it. But later in the day, my neighbor called all excited he spotted the young hawk in one of the trees near his house. So I went and got a photo of the young hawk.

Here it is...

This is one of the parents in a photo I took last year.

 

[Carol Dee]

Great Photos. Glad to hear all is well with the hawk family.

 

[lesa]

I remember that pic of the hawk on the birdbath! Too funny! I had one sitting on my bird feeder- it looked huge, compared to the usual song birds... Glad the baby was okay. They are such beautiful birds.

 

[gettinaclue]

Great photos! I really enjoyed them!

 

[NwMtGardener]

Rebbetzin - awesome photos!! About the only thing i like more than gardening is birding!! So i think you've actually got a family of Merlin, a type of falcon. Do you see the adults WHIPPING through the trees chasing littler birds and making fast hairpin turns on a dime? I'm not that familiar w/ arizona birds, so it's possible it's something else...looks right in my bird book tho

 

[rebbetzin]

Rebbetzin - awesome photos!! About the only thing i like more than gardening is birding!! So i think you've actually got a family of Merlin, a type of falcon. Do you see the adults WHIPPING through the trees chasing littler birds and making fast hairpin turns on a dime? I'm not that familiar w/ arizona birds, so it's possible it's something else...looks right in my bird book tho

From looking at photos on the web, I think it is one of the 45 species of the Accipiter type of hawk.

We have several types of hawks here in Arizona. All of them are something to see! Mostly we see them in the air, just gliding on the updrafts.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Oh yeah, look how much he looks like a Cooper's Hawk! I take it your bird bath is LARGE!? I was trying to figure out the scale, and i'm thinking "okay, birdbaths are like 18" wide, and he' shorter than that, so smallish bird..." have you seen the baby around since??

 

[rebbetzin]

Oh yeah, look how much he looks like a Cooper's Hawk! I take it your bird bath is LARGE!? I was trying to figure out the scale, and i'm thinking "okay, birdbaths are like 18" wide, and he' shorter than that, so smallish bird..." have you seen the baby around since??

I went out and measured the bird bath, it is 28 inches tall and the bowl is 19 inches across.. Yes, there are two babies, one was still in the nest as of Friday, the other one is close by, he is getting better at flying, but still isn't hunting on his own. The parents are flying back and forth with mice and other small bits of food for them. The babies can make quite a racket when they see the parents coming to feed them. The nest is in a big pine tree on the property next door. It really can't be seen very well, too high up.