Backyard Visitor

Around lunchtime today we heard a horrible "thunk" against the windows in our family room. We have 3 really tall windows that each have a transom over them. Every few weeks a morning dove or house finch will hit one of the windows. Usually they are just stunned and shake off their shock in a nearby tree before flying away. The "thunk" today was really loud and caused us all to run to the window. Turns out today's collision involved a juvenile cooper's hawk.

I don't know if it was chasing a bird and didn't notice the window or if it saw the trees reflected in the window and didn't realize the window was there. Either way, it was a horrible sound, and when we looked, the bird's body was in a heap on our patio. We were afraid it was dead,but as we watched, it slowly started moving its head back and forth. It's wing was at an odd angle to its body, so even if it was alive, I feared its wing was broken.

I called a local wildlife rehab hospital to find out how to safely bring him in to be cared for. As I was talking to the lady, the hawk managed to stand up and shake itself out a little. We decided to leave it alone for awhile to see if he would recover. He stood there and looked around for quite awhile. I managed to get a couple pictures of him from the other side of the yard and through the window (the 3rd pic). He followed me with his head, but didn't move otherwise. A little while later Danielle went in the backyard to take a picture with her camera. She got out there and within sight of the bird, and it flew away! It flew gracefully to the top of a tall tree in a nearby yard. Danielle wasn't even disappointed she missed her shot - we were so thankful he was ok and able to fly! We have seen this bird in our yard several times before and are so grateful he'll still be around! (I've never seen him successfully catch one of my feeder birds, so I don't mind his periodic visits.)

Isn't he beautiful?! Look at those feet!