Why do hawks attack PM's and.............
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geneinmurphy
- Posts: 348
- Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2003 12:09 pm
- Location: North Carolina/Murphy
not attack robins and mockingbirds (which are not nearly as good a fliers as PM's) ????? I have dozens of robins and many mockingbirds around my house but have never seen my local hawk attack them. However, he continues to harass my PM's. Why doesn't the hawk go after the easier targets??????????????????????
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Steve Kroenke
- Posts: 4342
- Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:49 pm
- Location: Louisiana/Logansport
Gene,
I have studied predator/prey relationships relative to purple martins and Accipiter hawks for many years. A purple martin colony is like a bird feeding station. An Accipiter hawk will develop a hunting strategy for hunting the martins and once he/she is successful then the hawk will continue to pursue the martins and often ignore other birds nearby. It is easier to sit on a gourd rack/house top and ambush a martin that tries to flee for example. Or, the hawk will hide in a nearby tree and strike the moment a martin leaves its nest or flies down to it. Martins try to outfly these speedy and agile hawks rather than try to hide in vegetation. A mockingbird or cardinal will often plunge deep inside thickets which may help. Martins don't do this and martins are highly vulnerable at low altitudes and can't out accelerate these hawks initially.
Resident Cooper's hawks decimated my wonderful martin colony in Tallahassee, Florida during the most sensitive time: the martins were feeding their babies. The hawks learned to ambush the martins as they flew in to feed their young. Numerous parent martins were killed and their babies starved. I had a bird feeding station nearby and the hawks largely ignored the doves and cardinals because the hawks had become conditioned to hunt the martins and were successful. Perhaps "your Cooper's" is a migrant and will move on. However, Cooper's hawks do nest in North Carolina so he/she may be a resident. Good luck.
Here is a link to an article of mine that describes in detail the wing structure of Accipiters and martins and how this impacts predation success or failure:
http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=134
Steve
I have studied predator/prey relationships relative to purple martins and Accipiter hawks for many years. A purple martin colony is like a bird feeding station. An Accipiter hawk will develop a hunting strategy for hunting the martins and once he/she is successful then the hawk will continue to pursue the martins and often ignore other birds nearby. It is easier to sit on a gourd rack/house top and ambush a martin that tries to flee for example. Or, the hawk will hide in a nearby tree and strike the moment a martin leaves its nest or flies down to it. Martins try to outfly these speedy and agile hawks rather than try to hide in vegetation. A mockingbird or cardinal will often plunge deep inside thickets which may help. Martins don't do this and martins are highly vulnerable at low altitudes and can't out accelerate these hawks initially.
Resident Cooper's hawks decimated my wonderful martin colony in Tallahassee, Florida during the most sensitive time: the martins were feeding their babies. The hawks learned to ambush the martins as they flew in to feed their young. Numerous parent martins were killed and their babies starved. I had a bird feeding station nearby and the hawks largely ignored the doves and cardinals because the hawks had become conditioned to hunt the martins and were successful. Perhaps "your Cooper's" is a migrant and will move on. However, Cooper's hawks do nest in North Carolina so he/she may be a resident. Good luck.
Here is a link to an article of mine that describes in detail the wing structure of Accipiters and martins and how this impacts predation success or failure:
http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=134
Steve
Last edited by Steve Kroenke on Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Emil Pampell-Tx
- Posts: 6743
- Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2003 1:26 pm
- Location: Tx, Richmond (SW of Houston)
- Martin Colony History: First started in Gretna, La in 1969 with a small homemade house, have had martins ever since at 2 different homes in Texas
Because they have opposite escape tactics..A mockingbird stays near trees, it flys into the most dense small limb area, especially, shrubbery when a hawk attacks..I have seen a hawk hit a youpon holly in nearly full force trying to catch a mockingbird..the birds hop from limb to limb and the hawk cannot follow...
If the hawk thinks it has a chance, they will attack those birds..
If the hawk thinks it has a chance, they will attack those birds..
PMCA Member, 250 gourds, 6 poles, 2traps
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Guest
of the three accipiters gos, coop and sharpie. the coop is most likley to follow into heavy brush-- this is where they work best . they are as agile as a pheasant on the ground and going through dense shrubs. have seen many slips with a coop flown on quail , and when quail (put in) in cover that you would think too thick for a jack russell they always seem to weasel through it and make the catch. i think the resident birds never stray from cover and know when to hide before they are seen
jasonc
jasonc