Is this a chicken hawk?

13 years ago

my nephew almost stepped on this bird. he picked it up and put it in his workboot so the fire-ants wouldn't kill it. he came in and said he found a dove, but the second look i had i realized it wasn't. i looked up hawks, and i think that's what it is, possibly a red tail? it has pinky feathers here and there. you can tell it's just a tiny baby. i don't know if i mentioned in other posts, but we've also been seeing what has to be eagles. i've never in all my years seen anything so HUGE and i've lived in this house 51 years. my niece has seen the same kind of huge bird at her house a few miles away.

{{gwi:127384}}

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Comments (8)

luna_llena_feliz
13 years ago
It looks like it has the right coloring for a red-tail. Is the beak curved and pointed? Poor little thing.
Marlene Kindred
13 years ago
Hi Kudzu~

I don't think your chick is a hawk...he's too small to already have his adult colored feathers for a hawk. I do think he might be a dove. See the link below...I found it online searching for baby dove pictures...looks a lot like your little guy.

Here is a link that might be useful: baby dove
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Thanks for all the reponses. The nest is 60 to 70 feet up in the air, so there's no way I can discourage the hawks to leave. I do miss the songbirds; they won't come back to our yard until the hawks leave. Actually, I think at least one hawk was here all winter. I really disliked the hawks at first, but I will confess. The second year I happened to look out the window and saw something white fall from the tree where they were nesting. One of the birds had fallen (or more likely was pushed) out of the nest. Fortunately the Husky was inside, or the hawk would have become a snack. They were just babies then, too young to fly. When I saw the hawk on the ground looking at me, my heart melted and I ran inside and called my vet. I got the number of a wildlife rescue volunteer and drove the hawk about 30 miles to her house. I even gave her money to buy mice to feed the hawk! My attitude changed a lot that day. The young are amusing to watch as they learn to fly; they can always get back to the tree but not quite to the top, so they walk/hop the rest of the way. As for the crows, the hawks bully them and always win. I guess I hadn't thought of the droppings and bones as being good fertilizer, thanks for telling me. Anyhow, the hostas have been doing very well in their garden, and as I'm out there watering/hosing off the droppings, I'll think of you guys. What a great forum!
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I make my suet mixture using suet or lard. I melt the fat in a glass bowl in the microwave until liquid. Then I add crunchy peanut butter, which melts in the hot fat. Then I add the dried ingredients - corn meal, flour, oats (usually ground in blender), ground eggshells, crushed nuts, a little jam or jelly, etc. The mixture is about 1/2 fat, 1/2 dried ingredients - maybe a little more dried. I aim for a mixture that is the texture of Play-doh - it clumps together easily for the suet log, but also crumbles into pieces that I spread in a tray feeder. I made the suet log over 3 years ago out of an old red Pine log and glued lots of perches and branches. It did not have much bark on it - which is fine, except that over time the log has darkened quite a bit, perhaps because of the oils in the suet mixture. Also, most of the perches and branches have broken and fallen off. This birds don't seem to care. If you put perches on the log, this will enable many more birds to eat more easily. However, this isn't necessarily a good thing because with mine, it enables the Starlings and Blue Jays to hog the suet log, and it encourages House Sparrows. My suet log is pole-mounted with a squirrel/raccoon baffle, so nothing gets onto the log but the birds. Here's what the suet mixture looks like - Some Bluebirds on the suet log a couple years ago. They don't eat that much on the suet log any more, because I usually spread crumbles in a tray for them.
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wrens are the smallest of the nesting birds you probably will get and they can squeeze into a 1 inch hole. The chickadees and nuthatches a inch 1/4 or 1 1/2 hole. you can compare the sizes of the birds you get but there is not a lot of size difference in wrens and chickadees. bluebirds would need a little bigger house. if you can compare nests from last year you could see if the nest would fit in the house. the hole guards are to keep woodpeckers or squirrels or others from enlargeing the holes. I have seen woodpeckers enlarge a hole and use the house. A lid from a tin can with a hole in the center is used and tacked on. and can be painted to match the bird house. I don't get the tits or redpoles or some of the small birds from back east. also each variety of birds make different nests some with twigs and others with straw or grass or woodpeckers often sawdust. The bluebirds we get like to use hay or straw and bits of string or yarn or the stringy bark from cedar or juniper trees. I know some people here hinge the lid or front of the birdhouse so they can open it. not only to clean but also if the wrong birds try to nest say a wren with twigs they remove the nest and hope to get a different bird before the egg laying begins. Just because the hole is bigger does not mean the wrens won't try to use it. They are mean little birds and will kill babys or destroy nests of other birds.
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Comments (10)
I was going to say Chicken Hawk, but I see that it's another name for Coopers Hawk. A neighbor of mine has talked about them, they nest in our mature Maples and Elms on our street. I had never actually seen one (or paid attention) until recently when he flew into my yard (I have feeders as of this year) after another bird, apparently attempting to reach the bird hidden in my new arborvitae. By the time I got to the back door (to scare him off), he was gone. My neighbor had to move his feeder, as the Hawks nest was situated just above the roofline, with a perfect view of the feeder. I have enough trees in my yard to hopefully create a safe haven for the smaller birds during the warmer months, at least when there's foliage on the trees. Interesting looking birds, and I was surprised at how large they are. My feeders haven't been touched in a couple of weeks (I'm in an urban location).
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concretenprimroses
13 years ago
What a cute little thing. How sweet of your son to rescue it. A few years ago, I took my baby kittens out in the yard, and some HUGE birds came flying over head. I grabbed them up and brought them back in. We sometimes have eagles along the CT river, but I am several miles inland and had never seen them at my home.
Kathy
liljunkr
13 years ago
That is no Hawk of any kind even baby. It is way to small. The smallest hawk I've ever seen was a night hawk and it was nearly 3Xs larger than this one. Long before the Red-tailed hawk eyeasses (baby hawks)have their adult feathers they are the same size as the adults. What you have looks very much like a morning dove. Morning doves make a mornful oooo oooooo oooo sound, they nest on the ground often. The feathers run in various grays to brown tan and have shades of pinks and blues sometimes.

the link below is a nest with 3 eyeasses & 2 adults. I think the eyeasses hatched about 4 weeks ago. They are going to fledge in the next few weeks.

LIL

Here is a link that might be useful: A nest of hawks
kudzukween
Original Author
13 years ago
lol thanks ya'll. i do see doves around here a lot. people hunt them. the first time i wondered if the hurricane had just blown the pigeons out here to the boonies! but they're very pale colored, light gray i guess, with rings around their necks.
sunnyca_gw
13 years ago
Cute little guy!! Guess GS can dig worms & feed him, he may end up pretty tame!! Year my DH died I heard a cooing 1 morning, i went out & looked in orange tree finally got a ladder & this dove just sat there & I was about a ft. away. I went out every day & talked to her told her she would have better luck next year cause a handful of long pine needles is not a nest, eggs would fall to the ground,she almost acted like she understood & would cock her head & coo. Finally there was a lot of noise out back so I ran to window to see. 2 adult doves showing their 2 little ones the finer points of taking their 1st bath, it was a noisy affair in the perfect birdbath, a plastic Parsons table flipped up side down & legs removed & filled with water & on over 100degree days I added a tray of ice cubes. Birds had a good time. That dove was much smarter than me but I still don't know where those eggs were & why I didn't hear them until they left the nest. I never saw an adult leave the nest either. They are around now but have never nested in my yard again. Guess they knew I needed a distraction from my loss. Jan
kudzukween
Original Author
13 years ago
aww, what a great story :D
cherry/kudzu
Marlene Kindred
13 years ago
Around here in VA, mourning doves are very common birds. I will tell you that they will come back to your house again and again if they find adequate food and shelter. They have a wonderful sound and they are such peaceful, pretty birds. In the winter, I always have to laugh because they look like giant softballs with legs...they are quite voracious! Anyway, good luck with your little guy...hope he makes it to adulthood. As as sidenote...doves do need grit in their diets. That's why they hang around the edge of a road..they're eating the tiny grit from the gravel.

Is this a chicken hawk?

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luna_llena_feliz

Marlene Kindred

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Is this a chicken hawk?

Comments (8)

luna_llena_feliz

Marlene Kindred

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concretenprimroses

liljunkr

kudzukweenOriginal Author

sunnyca_gw

kudzukweenOriginal Author

Marlene Kindred

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kudzukween
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kudzukween
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