Yet another Sharp Shinned hawk, resting in close proximity to where I live. Actually he is perched in a tree a few feet from our big front bay window. Little bit of a funny story to this one.

I was hanging out in my room, getting ready to go to my second job when I hear a loud thump from the dining room. It is an all too familiar sound to me that I usually cringe to hear, as it indicates that a bird had flown into the mirrored window and shocked, injured or killed itself. So I go and check and sure enough there is a silhouette of a bird on the window where it had stuck, wings, body, tail, everything. I look down into the bush just below the window and surprised to see it was not a bird of prey as I had suspected based on the shape left on the glass. It was a Northern Flicker, laying dead on top of the bush. Odd? How do I get a picture of a Sharp Shinned when there is a dead Flicker on the other side of the glass from me?

Well there was a little flutter of light on the tree that catches my eye. The Sharp Shinned pictured above had just taken its perch, eyeing the dead Flicker. And there is a little bit of down on its beak (Which I think you can see in the photo actually). All I can think is the Sharp Shinned was chasing the Flicker for a meal and forced it to fly right into the window at full speed. Clever hunter.

After a short while of studying its prey it was being approached by a squirrel. It was not very happy about that, puffing up, hissing, and opening it's wing before hopping off the branch, swooping by to grab its meal from the bush and flew off. Pretty interesting.

Sharp Shinned Hawk
Photo by me