Sure looks like a hawk. Not a Red-tail, I don't think,
but do you have Coopers Hawks in your area?

I hate to see them eating things like that too. We
have the red-tails here, and they are always on the
look-out for baby bunnies.

It looks like a Falcon.

It looks like a young red-tailed hawk, to me.

A Perigrine Falcon, I think......google it and look at the pictures and see what you think.

A couple of years ago I pulled in the drive way and one was sitting there eating a duck! It turned and looked right at me!!! I was almost afraid to get out of the car!LOL I slid over and got out the passenger side, so that I was as far away from it as I could be, tho!

I think it might be a peregrine falcon?

Here is a link that might be useful:

Why hate the fact that an animal got something to eat? It's the food chain! Pretty bird.

LOL - I'll remind you of that if you ever get
eaten by a Bear, Socks.

To answer your question - I like bunnies better than
birds is my reason. About all I can tell you.

He's pretty.

Mr. Cooper (a beautiful Cooper's Hawk) and his family live in our back yard. He takes a bath in the bird bath and occasionally swoops down and helps himself to a lunch of doves, rodents, etc. much to my dismay. I hate to see him eat other birds, etc. but I know he has to do what is natural for him. I think your bird is a falcon. The Cooper's Hawks are darker colored.

" It was munching on another bird. I just hate that......I was raised in the country and hawks were often trying to get our little chickens. "

If you hated to see this bird eating a bird then I take it that you yourself are a vegetarian. Then I have to wonder why you were raising chickens?

Hawks and falcons also eat rodents and snakes. A lot of birds, even Bluejays are omnivorous. This is nature in balance.

Thanks for all your replies.

Its back was really not very dark color - more a grey.

Here is a bigger pic

After examining the pic closely, I notice the rings on the tail, so do suspect that it was a Coopers Hawk. I had never heard of that kind of hawk before.

Thanks to all of you.
ivamae

Sad to say we need those predators. It is a balance of nature. Like wolves and coyotes, without them deer, rodents and other critters get out of control/balance. Guess living in the country and on a ranch as long as we did we got use to it.

I know how you feel, I hate looking at vultures eating dead things on the roadside but it reminds me that they clean up a lot of stuff that would just lay there otherwise...we have so many deer in this area and they often get hit by a car...the officials come and get some of them but lots of times they are left for the vultures when they are way out in the country.

Cool sighting! It's probably either a Sharp-shinned or a Cooper's - they can be very hard to tell apart. You can do a search on Flickr to see if you can tell, or check out the link I've attached, which is great for bird id's.

Here is a link that might be useful: All About Birds

Beautiful hawk.

If you eat any meat, poultry, eggs in any way, shape, or form, you are a predator too.

It's nature's way. No hunters, no scavengers, and we'd be ankle deep in rotting animals.

Do you actually want to be overrun by rabbits and mice? I think not.

my husband thinks it is a falcon because they have longer tails like this one

Just looked it up in my bird book and it could be either a Sharp-Shinned Hawk or a Coopers Hawk. They are really hard to tell apart. The Coopers Hawk tend to have more ticking on the breast, where the S-S is more solid. Nice picture!

I feed the LBBs (little brown birds) here to attract the birds of prey. I have a huge spruce tree in my front yard and have seen Cooper's and Kestrels fly in there for a meal. We are overrun with English sparrows, pardon me, politically correct HOUSE sparrows, starlings and Eurasian collared doves and do anything I can to get the numbers down. We also live out in the high desert and worry about hantavirus and need to keep the rodent population down. The guys at the feed store looked at me like I grew a third head when I told him "my hawks thank you" when he loaded up the 40# of sunflower seeds. "I didn't know hawks ate sunflower seeds". "Nope," I told him, " they eat the birds that eat the sunflower seeds." I left him speechless!

I love animals, but I'm not a vegetarian. I've seen hawks kill birds and they do it instantly. I don't begrudge any of the creatures here what they eat...and that includes Mister Twister, the cottonmouth that buried himself in the sunflower seed hulls and leaves under the bird feeder, and helped himself to a dove and a cardinal. Probably more, but those are the two I saw. I would love to have had my camera handy to have a picture of of him with those feathers sticking out of his mouth. And Ten Dogs, one of his relatives, pretty much cleaned out the goldfish in some of the lily tanks. Everything has to eat something. (I do pen up the chickens at night so the raccoons can't eat them...but the raccoons get plenty to eat here anyway.)

Last year DD was driving down their driveway with both little ones in the car when a bald eagle swooped down and picked up a pheasant right in front of the car. She was startled but honked and the eagle dropped the struggling pheasant who escaped into high grass.

Life in the wild