For at least the past two weeks or so we’ve had an accipiter visiting the yard.  An accipiter is a raptor that generally makes its living feeding off of other birds, and yards with good habitat (which attracts birds) are good hunting grounds for the accipiters.  The two most common accipiters in this area are the Sharp-shinned hawk and the Cooper’s hawk, and their appearances, put mildly, are quite similar.

Several years ago I took some excellent photos of an accipiter on the same fence as the one pictured in the last photo below and sent them to several birders, all more skilled than I, for identification.  Four came down for the Sharp-shinned and four came down for the Cooper’s… the “final” identification was finally successfully defended by one of the birders who was a wildlife biologist.

So here are some photos of our visitor and the dates it was photographed…

March 26, 2016, visit.  This was my first photo (but not sighting) of the accipiter this year.  These birds will actually wade into brush piles to try to flush prey.

My next photos, of presumably the same bird, occurred on March 30, 2016.  (The photos are getting better!)

My most recent sighting of the accipiter was on April 3, 2016.  Ironically, the bird is standing on the same fence I mentioned in my prior comments.

These, as you can see, are beautiful birds but their arrival will totally flush your yard of other species of birds for a considerable length of time.  They never stay for long but make the rounds of yards in the neighborhood where feeders attract other birds.

On a hopefully unrelated note, I have yet to log my first warbler in the yard.  It’s still early and I’m not behind with regard to prior years, but I’m ready to start photographing warblers!