Backyard Birding Forum

Hi, I have birdfeeders in my front yard. We enjoy all kinds of birds, we even had a mother duck with 5 baby's coming to the yard to eat the dropped sead and bath. Now, we have this cooper hawk coming in the yard by the feeder to catch prey(our chickadees, finches, juncos, cardinals etc.) One day he didn't even care I was out there and dove into our shrubs (where the birds hang out). Seriously, he flew over and dove straight down into the shrub. I was 10 feet away, I ran over and shook the shrub and out he came empty handed. I try to scare it off but to no avail he keeps coming back for the easy meal.
How can I scare him off?

They are protected by the migratory bird act so you can't do much about it without getting in trouble. Anything you put out there to scare it away will most likely scare your small birds off too. I get them from time to time in the backyard also. Unfortunately for your songbirds it's survival of the fittest.

hey there.  first off, welcome ot the forum.

about your "problem", like Matt said, there's really not much you can do.

the only thing i can think of is to offer your song birds more protection and cover by maybe moving your feeder closer to the shrubs or under trees.

Well that is nature, everything needs to eat. take it as a good thing that you get to see a bird of prey in action like that. it cannot possibly eat all your song birds, but if it takes a few it is just doing what it needs to to live.

Sylvias:

Well that is nature, everything needs to eat. take it as a good thing that you get to see a bird of prey in action like that. it cannot possibly eat all your song birds, but if it takes a few it is just doing what it needs to to live.

Agreed. Enjoy the balance of nature in your backyard. No need for Discovery Channel! :o)

Basically bird feeders are like a living buffet for raptors. And I would KILL to see a kill any day. It is such an awesome sight to catch a predator-prey in action. Mother Nature at its best. And these raptors don't enjoy a high rate of success in their hunts.

I had a Cooper's Hawk once blew right by my face when I was having a cigarette outdoors, and crash into a bush next to a bird feeder about 10 ft from me. It managed to grab a sparrow and flew to a nearby tree. It was exhilarating!