Let me start by saying that I'm not terribly concerned about this bird. It has had plenty of opportunity to kill my hens but hasn't done so. Mostly I'm sharing because this
experience has fascinated me but if anyone has any insight that would be great.
This all started about two weeks ago. I've seen Cooper's Hawks around before and even witnessed one chase a dove. One morning a CH starts up this whistling sort of calling. It's making a huge amount of noise for what is a stealth predator. The noise continued all day and after a while it kind of felt like the bird was circling our
yard. It was doing a lot of hanging around in surrounding
trees then later in the day in the tree immediately over my hens run. I even went out and shooed it away once. My hens several times that day made noise alerting me to the fact that the hawk was too close for comfort. I decided to lock the ladies up early as a precaution. I look out later when the hens
should be going to bed and the CH is perched on the corner of the coop. The next day we get more noise and a few more visits from the CH.
A few more days go by with nothing then one morning the CH is in the tree over the run again. I was out in the yard at the time so I shoo it away.
Another day I'm watching TV and the hens start making a ruckus. I go out to see what's up and CH is sitting on a shoulder high branch in the
chicken run. I locked the ladies up as a precaution and 10 minutes later they were making noise again because the CH is sitting on the coop roof again. Later that day I let my hens have run of the yard for a little while while I was out and could watch them. Guess who showed up in a tree nearby? One of my hens saw it and let me know.
Another day or two later and my pet cockatiel startles and flies off his perch that is attached to the sliding glass door. I managed to look just in time to see a wing and tail wheel away. Looked out the back door and CH is sitting perched on the top of my patio umbrella. It didn't hit the glass but I'm pretty sure it tried to eat my cockatiel.
A few more days and I'm sitting out on my deck in the morning and the hawk swoops across my yard and lands in the neighbors tree. I went over to that
fence to have a look and decided I'd pull a few weeds while I'm there. My yard is only 100ft wide in the back but that seemed to be far
enough for CH to go
land on the
chicken coop again. I shooed it away again but it came back a few minutes later. I think it didn't see me behind a tree and it left as quickly as it came.
Today I happened to look out my back door just as the CH swoops down and lands in the chicken run. I go running out there and it's just standing on the ground and flies about 20ft away and lands on the
fence. I think my hens were confused because they didn't make any noise about the hawk this time.