Shrews have voracious appetities to the point of being cannibalistic. There's a good chance a shrew ate the trapped shrew. Even given the sometimes damage they might do, when all is said and done, they are a good thing to have in the garden. From North Dakota State University: "The principal part of their food, as shown by the stomach contents consists of insects, earthworms, and the small animal life found over the surface of the ground. They ravenously devour any kind of fresh meat, whether it be a meadow mouse or woods mouse, or one of their own kind, found in a trap, or a bit of bird meat or beef placed on the trap trigger to attract them, and in winter they will gather in numbers if a piece of frozen meat, lard, or tallow is left under a log for them to gnaw. They undoubtedly catch many of the small rodents, and especially the young, for food, as they are capable of killing animals larger than themselves. They apparently never accumulate any fat and are active throughout the year, evidently finding an abundance of frozen insects and other food along their tunnels on or below the surface of the ground." tj

Thank you for the kind comments! Birds quickly learn to recognize when predators are in "hunting mode" or not, sometimes reminding me of Wile E. Coyote vs sheepdog cartoons where the sheepdog and coyote punch into work, greet each other, have coffee, then at the whistle start harassing each other. I've seen a Sharp-shinned Hawk waking up at dawn in the top of a tree next to Northern Flickers, bluebirds, etc. They'd all stretch and preen within a few feet of each other, then the hawk would fly off. After about 30 minutes when the other birds had begun feeding the hawk would come back, skimming low over the field, then go into pursuit of some terrified flicker. Wow..love the Sharpie photo

I fully agree. I have a pair of birds apparently nesting somewhere on my property that I frequently see mating (or snagging birds from my birdfeeder. . . .) that I can't get close enough to with my binoculars to readily identify. Although I have fairly positively identified Coopers as being around, this pair could be either species. What's interesting is that I also have mated pairs of both Red Tails & Red Shoulders on the property, & the 3 pairs are always bickering between themselves. Even the crows won't get involved when they're going at it - lol!

Luc, you need to congratulate the birds for being so magnificent. We were fortunate to have them come so close and sit still long enough for us to get these pictures. We have wanted to share this tip since we read it but didn't have pictures to show what we meant. The Cooper's coming a few days ago prompted us to share this with our friend and he supplied the juvenile Sharp-shinned. That made it even better. Ruth, we saw your post and didn't comment for lack of pictures as stated above. We are glad you posted your wonderful picture here in profile because it shows the shape of the head more than in your other post and helps to strengthen our argument about head shape. Most of the time they move there head from side to side so you can see the shape. Most people post the pictures of them looking at you which makes this process a little harder to use. Nathan, maybe the shape and streaking are so similar between these species that it is part of the reason there is so much question as to which is which. That is why the shape of the head may be a better way to decide. Our second picture and Ruth's looks like the beak is a continuation of a line in the same plane as the top of the beak. You could almost lay a straightedge across it. The adult and the third picture, that you question, do not look like that. The beak and the head look like two separate curves that meet at an angle. Thank you Rachel, BnB