Participant Photo: Cooper’s Hawk after harassment by Chickadees

As I was working in my house, I noticed Black-capped Chickadees flitting furiously up and down in a tree over one of my feeders. Eventually I saw the Cooper’s Hawk camouflaged in a thicket of branches. Four Chickadees and a White-breasted Nuthatch were harassing the hawk, one Chickadee coming within four inches of the hawk. I guess they realized the hawk was not as agile as they were and they must have worked as an early warning system for the pigeons and dove, which a Cooper’s Hawk has fed on in the past. Also, a male House Finch sat in a branch several feet over the hawk’s head. The hawk moved to another branch when I came out with my camera, which allowed me a clear shot.