around town doing errands.
I see them sailing across suburban backyards, emerging from a row
of cedars and clearing a half dozen
privacy fences before vanishing into
the depths of an ornamental crabap-ple. If I happen to miss one circling
over the rooftops of the commercial
district, the starlings make sure I
see it, shoaling around in an angry
black ball—a school of small-fries
empowered by the realization that
with numbers and cunning, they can
defeat the shark.
When I get midsummer calls
from people with hawks in their
yards—something that happens less
and less infrequently—it’s always
Cooper’s hawks. Always.
bird feeders.
BWD MAP BY CLAIRE MULLEN
If you really want
to make big strides in
your ability to separate
the sharpies from the
Coops, you should go
to a hawk watch site,
probably in autumn,
although there are
active spring counts
too. There, you can
see a decade’s worth
of Cooper’s and sharp-
shinneds in a day,
and usually get lots
of expert help with
your identifications.
One good source for
information on hawk
watch sites is the Hawk
Migration Associa-
tion of North America
(
hmana.org), or you
can ask about hawk
watches at your local
bird club or nature
center.—J.G.
BREEDING
RANGE
YEAR-ROUND
RANGE
WINTER
RANGE
