The visitor stared at the sky in the direction the hawk watcher was looking. “Oh yes, I see them.” The smaller bird dove toward the larger one, both swirled rapidly, each seeming to attack the other in rapid succession.
“They’re Sharp-shinned Hawks,” said the hawk watcher. “Male and female.”
“How in the world can you tell?” asked the visitor.
“The males are smaller than the females. He’s weighs about as much as a quarter pounder. She’s almost twice as big.”
“Okay, but how do you even know they’re sharpies?”
“When we see one hawk attack another hawk, it is almost always a sharpie. We look for other clues, like a small head and a long thin tail. But sharpies have an attitude; they’ll go after anything. We’ve even seen them harass an eagle. That’s what sharpies often do.”
|Cooper's Hawk harassing Bald Eagle|
Harassment of one bird by another bird is usually a defensive technique. Blue Jays are especially noted for the way they will mob a hawk. In late August, I watched as jays screamed their displeasure and made continuous mock attacks on a young Sharp-shinned Hawk. The hawk in turn made ineffectual attempts to chase the jays. Blue jays are frequent targets of the accipiters and there is good reason for their alarm when a hawk is in the neighborhood.
Protection of nesting territory and proactive protection against a potential predator accounts for most of this behavior. But I must admit that I am at a loss to explain the feistiness of the Sharp-shinned Hawk, especially since so many are young hatch year birds. Is there genetic encoding which is protecting against territorial intrusion. Is there an attempt to take prey on the wing? Or is there a preemptive attack to prevent becoming prey? Sharp-shins are small hawks, and they are preyed upon by larger hawks, even their cousin, the Cooper’s Hawk.
A few years ago, I read a daily report from a hawk watch site in southeastern Michigan. It was a slow day for the hawks. The hawk watchers were happy when a Sharp-shinned Hawk was sighted. As it worked its way southward, it was duly counted. Then a Peregrine Falcon suddenly dove on the sharpie, grabbed it in mid-air, and began to feed as it continued to fly. The sharpie was taken off the count list; the Peregrine was added.
Sharp-shinned Hawks are not the only raptors with attitude. Pete Dunne (in Hawks in Flight) describes the sharpie as feisty, but when writing about the Merlin he uses adjectives like aggressive, pugnacious, and intolerant. The Merlin is a falcon only slightly larger than the kestrel. But where the kestrel is a waif on the wind, the Merlin is compact, powerful, and fast.
Dunne writes of the Merlin: “They will go out of their way to harass a bird that crosses into their territory or occupies their airspace. Since Merlins seem just as easily provoked during migration as at any other time of year, a Merlin’s territory may be inferred to be wherever it happens to find itself.” He continues on their attitude: “Merlins are usually solitary (because they have a bad disposition) and will frequently go out of their way to harass other birds in migration .... At Cape May, high-flying Merlins are usually detected because they are harassing another raptor.”
|Cooper's Hawk harassing Northern Harrier|
Early this week I watched a young harrier passing over the hawk watch site at Lighthouse Point where the Connecticut River enters Long Island Sound. The harrier’s presence provoked the ire of a young female Cooper’s Hawk. She dove at the young harrier.
Was the Cooper’s overly optimistic, thinking she could somehow snatch the harrier and have a generous meal? Or did she simply have an attitude, taking offense at the harrier’s presence in her presence and driving him from her airspace? Whatever the reason, it happened less than a hundred feet above my head.
Attitude. It’s not very pleasant when you have to deal with another person who has it. But when watching hawks, it makes for some great hawk watching.