Hawk takes out Quail in the blink of an eye

[Larebear]

Just finished throwing out corn for the Quail, Doves and Pheasants. Hawk decides to have dinner too. Poor Quail didn't know what hit him/her. Happened so fast that the only thing left was feathers.

 

[Ssayer]

Good catch! A few years ago, my son and I were looking out our front window towards the bird feeder. From our vantage point we couldn't quite see the ground. All of a sudden we saw a blur and then an explosion of red feathers. Turns out a Cooper's Hawk had just dive bombed a Cardinal. It was quite the thing to see live.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Fast indeed. Too fast for the one by the bird bath left all by itself wondering 'where has everyone gone?' then rushing off after the event.

 

[Larebear]

It's hard to believe how fast they are. This is the second time that one of my cameras captured a hawk grabbing a Quail. I played back the video frame by frame and saved the 5 frames that show the hawk attack. Death from above. nthego:

Yeah, that one little guy was wondering what happened to all of his friends. 'Where did everyone go?' eaceful:

The camera is set for 10FPS and the hawk was in 4 of the frames, so doesn't that mean that all this happened in about half a second?

 

[lulu5kamz]

Nice capture frame pictures.

 

[gordo]

Great capture Lare. Hawks like the Cooper's Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk are known for using a bird feeder for a hunting ground.

 

[Larebear]

I think that's what's happening. The Quail, Doves and Pheasants are out there everyday, most of the day. The Hawks are probably smart enough to figure out that's where their food source hangs out.

I don't know if they would attack a pheasant. Some of the chink roosters could probably put up a good fight and they're bigger than a Hawk.

 

[Larebear]

I'm not sure what kind of hawk took the Quail. Maybe someone that knows more about Hawks or is a bird watcher would know from the frame captures.