Looking Forward

Day 12: If you were to say that this Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) was looking forward to having breakfast at my feeder, you'd be right on two counts. On the first, he failed miserably, since every small bird in the yard quickly flew into the safety of the contorted filbert. On the second, a forty-degree field of binocular vision allowed the hunter to better gauge distance, position and size of the intended prey. Hawks' eyes are set in their heads with a greater forward rotation than that of most songbirds, and their full range of vision may extend up to 280 degrees. Some studies have concluded that accipiters' visual acuity is as much as eight times better than that of a perfectly-sighted human.

Sharpie

Day 346: Got a Sharpie? I do. Accipter striatus (Sharp-shinned Hawk) flew in to see what was for breakfast, and since he didn't feel like tackling a Steller's Jay, he went away disappointed. Sharpies are not always easy to distinguish from Cooper's, but this guy's distinctive streaking continued far down his breast and clinched the identification. Side by side, you might have noticed that Cooper's has a larger head and a longer tail, factors which are difficult to judge when only one specimen is present. Overall, Sharpies are smaller, and might well come off on the losing end of the contest with a Steller's Jay. The smaller birds seemed to know he was around, and stayed in the protection of the contorted filbert's tangle of branches. Even when bare of leaves, the tree's natural maze proves too tight for a Sharpie to penetrate.