We were so surprised to see a hawk sitting by our bird feeders in our backyard. We’ve seen hawks in trees in our yard but never at the feeders. And this hawk looked a little different than the ones we usually see around here.

So, we looked got our binoculars and checked it out and looked it up on our iBird PRO and found out that it was a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk. We had never seen one before. Very cool.

“Sharp-shinned Hawks are small, long-tailed hawks with short, rounded wings. They have small heads that in flight do not always project beyond the “wrists” of the wings. The tail tends to be square-tipped and may show a notch at the tip. Sharp-shinned Hawks are agile fliers that speed through dense woods to surprise their prey, typically songbirds. They do not stoop on prey from high overhead. They may also pounce from low perches.”

We had no birds at our feeders for the rest of the afternoon and I didn’t see any feathers in the yard so I think they were all safe. He stayed for quite a while and then flew away.

Have you ever seen a Sharp-shinned Hawk?