A Sharp-shinned Hawk at Toronto’s Milliken Park
A Sharp-shinned Hawk at Toronto’s Milliken Park
Beneath a very cloudy sky, Bob and I decided to visit Milliken Park in Toronto, Ontario, to see if we could spot any birds. As it turned out, we spotted a Sharp-shinned Hawk.
This small Raptor, ironically, is the smallest hawk you will find anywhere in North America. In the spring, Sharp-shinned Hawks prefer hunting for prey in wooded areas such as in our local park, and they are also notorious for swooping down on small songbirds at bird feeders and carrying them away.
As we took our few photos, this Sharp-shinned Hawk kept looking left then right, backwards and forwards, searching for some unsuspecting songbird to prey upon.
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the best way to deal with the threat of a Sharp-shinned Hawk hunting in your backyard is to remove all of your bird feeders for a couple of weeks, and then hope that the Sharp-shinned Hawk will move on. The songbirds will return when the feeders are replaced. So, Bob and I will be keeping an eye on our backyard birds over the next couple of days to see if the Sharp-shinned Hawk shows up.
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A Northern Saw-Whet Owl We Sighted In Toronto
Beautiful look at the feather patterns.
Yes, when you can get in close for a look at the detailed patterns, it really emphasizes just how beautiful even this species of bird is.
Informative post and identification tips. I made a post on my blog of an American Kestrel picking out a Mourning Dove. The victor enjoyed her spoils.
American Kestrels are such pretty birds, and innocent looking. We have had one visit our backyard, albeit not recently, but we did spot several of them in Whitby, not far from Lynde Shores Conservation Area. That would have been a couple of weeks ago. They were flitting about a field next to the highway, and lighting on the telephone wires. I didn’t manage to get very good photographs that time.