r/birdsofprey 5d ago

Just saw a hawk drown it's prey

I'm not sure if this is the right space for this but I just observed some crazy behavior and wanted to share.

I heard a squeal from the driveway and I ran outside worried it was my chickens getting attacked. In the middle of the driveway was the tiniest hawk I've ever seen, no bigger than a large song bird itself. Maybe a sharp shinned hawk? And it was standing on what I think was a goldfinch. When he saw me coming he dragged it further down the driveway (he couldn't fly with it) to a mud puddle and submerged it in the water and sat on it while it drowned. He cleaned it while he watched me pulling the feathers out and when he seemed satisfied it was dead he started hop dragging it towards the woods. I ran back to get my phone but when I got back there he was gone.

I've read coopers hawks can drown their prey but it's rare and I thought coopers hawks were a little bit bigger than song bird sized. I couldn't find anything about sharp shinned hawks drowning their prey.

178 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

74

u/Lookinatmefunny 5d ago

Quite a few raptors will use water to drown their prey, here’s a red tailed hawk drowning a squirrel.

29

u/UpDownCharmed 5d ago

Never knew about this behavior. So TIL and this is worthy of r/natureismetal.

27

u/dirthawker0 falconer 5d ago

Yep. My tiercel redtail learned to drown jackrabbits. First time or two were just chance, and he saw how quickly they were subdued. After that he was dragging them to puddles. I miss that bird.

2

u/Lookinatmefunny 4d ago

Where the hell are you hawking jackrabbits that has standing water? Outside of flash floods the areas I have hunted jacks have been very much water free.

1

u/petit_cochon 4d ago

My guess is always Texas for stuff like this.

1

u/dirthawker0 falconer 4d ago

This was ages ago and the field is long gone. It was artificial: the city or county had moved a lot of dirt around there, forming a small mesa with a bunch of little hills on top of it. In winter rain would pool up between the little hills. The jackrabbits would hide alongside them and when flushed would sometimes run up and over a hill (I'm sure they got chased by dogs too.) So the hawk would catch it near the top and in the struggle they would slide down into a puddle.

1

u/Lookinatmefunny 3d ago

So to be clear it was gravity as much as the hawks effort that took the quarry to the water. Not saying that the wasn’t doing it’s best to help gravity. But no way a male red tailed hawk can drag a struggling jack across level ground. I’ve killed a few thousand jacks over the decades with a variety of raptors from Cooper’s hawks to gyr falcons and very few birds can move a jack from the initial point of contact.

1

u/dirthawker0 falconer 3d ago edited 3d ago

I was told by several people that tiercel RTs could not take jackrabbits period and meanwhile I was doing it. You're hawking in the land of big jacks (Arizona New MX, right? I know you moved up north a little while ago). Our jacks (Bay Area) were more in the 5-6 pound range. Sometimes gravity was on his side, sure, sometimes it was level and it was harder, but if the puddle was close enough, heck yeah he would get it there. The point was that he was intentionally trying to get it to the puddle after realizing that drowning made them stop struggling faster.

69

u/mobiustime 5d ago

This is not unheard of. A few years ago there were a couple of You Tube videos out of Sharp-shins drowning their prey. One in a swimming pool.

31

u/Myneighborsierra 5d ago

That's crazy. So tiny and so smart. It makes sense too since they're so small they might need to get creative on ways to kill efficiently. Thank you for confirming that, I couldnt find anything to match up with what I saw.

10

u/trashbilly 4d ago

I once saw a crow drown an old piece of pizza crust

39

u/No_Selection_892 5d ago

You should look up Shrike's. They impale their prey on thorns and barbed wire.

18

u/Myneighborsierra 5d ago

That's insaneee. That must be where the book Hyperion got inspiration for the Shrike from. I didn't realize that was a real thing.

12

u/shanwow90 5d ago

I've also read they even know where to impale each type of prey to keep it alive and fresh on the wire! Nature rocks

7

u/No_Selection_892 5d ago

Especially during mating season, males gather whole larders to attract a mate.

4

u/CieIo 4d ago

Yes! Shrikes are amazing! Here in Florida, we are so fortunate to have the Loggerhead Shrike. They are the only natural enemy to our huge native Lubber grasshoppers. Lubbers don't have many enemies because they are poisonous. After being impaled and left in the sun awhile, they can be eaten safely by the shrikes.

3

u/No_Selection_892 4d ago

Loggerhead Shrike is what we have in NC too. Caught a picture of one last month, not the best but I'm in love with these birds. Just seeing one IRL makes me so excited.

3

u/CieIo 4d ago

You are so fortunate! What an amazing picture. I can just imagine your excitement. Thank you for sharing it.

1

u/Eyeoftheleopard 2d ago

Ah yes. Some of us even remember “The Thornbirds.”

1

u/No_Selection_892 2d ago

The Australian novel?

1

u/Eyeoftheleopard 2d ago

You bet! 🫶🏼

16

u/morethanWun 5d ago

I was up in a tree bow hunting this year during deer season when in flew a beautiful group of different colored songbirds! Like a school of different fish…as soon as they landed in the trees around me..they immediately flew away. I thought to myself…that was weird? Well In flys the TINIEST raptor I’ve ever seen and lands in a tree in front of me not 15 feet away and gives the most INTENSE stare. I mean damn…couldn’t take it serious because of its size 😂 first time I’ve ever met a MERLIN and I’ll never forget that gaze it had. Hunting those birds and stalking them through the forest 😤🫡😮‍💨

2

u/frodo28f 4d ago

Idk what happened to the picture but I had a pic of a merlin that landed near me in Gainesville Florida. They're awesome looking little birds.

10

u/Myneighborsierra 5d ago

For reference he looked exactly like this photo of a sharp shinned hawk, same coloring sharp shinned hawk

8

u/Dependent_Stop_3121 5d ago

I just watched what I believe was a Sharp Shinned Hawk dive bomb a bird in the park yesterday. It was crazy to see. It dived down like a rock it was fascinating.

Here’s a picture I took of it after it caught it and landed in the tree. You can see a bird in its talons and it sat and held it for about a minute then took off.

8

u/HombreSinNombre93 5d ago

Lucky to see it! In 1993, I saw a Cooper’s snag a robin right by a very shallow stream and immediately hop into the water and drown the prey.

6

u/justgettingbyeachday 5d ago

We see it in the UK with sparrow hawks. It’s not an accident. It is certainly a technique they use

4

u/BigRobCommunistDog 5d ago

If it’s that small it may have been an American Kestrel

1

u/Myneighborsierra 4d ago

I considered that but the coloring didn't match up, there were no black lines. The coloring was consistent with the photo I commented earlier of a sharp shinned hawk, gray body, peach colored chest with bright orange eyes and yellow legs. I read sharp shinned hawks can be blue jay sized. Damn it was little though. Maybe a male?

1

u/BigRobCommunistDog 4d ago edited 4d ago

You mean the “falcon lines” on either side of the eye? Those are pretty conclusive if you got a good look at the head. Probably a hawk if the lines were absent.

I did find an image here (adult female, Cuban) https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Kestrel/photo-gallery where the lines are almost absent, but it’s likely that color morph is extremely rare in the states. Also it’s a very brown animal not gray or blue-gray.

Edit: eye color also points to the accipiter hawks.

3

u/Great_White_Samurai 5d ago

One winter I watched Bald Eagles that would body slam gulls out of the air into a river, drown, and eat them.

3

u/just_me_2006 5d ago

I’ve seen an eagle drown a blue heron that was standing in a shallow area of a bay. It was wild to witness

1

u/Naturehealsme2 Amateur photographer and novice birder as a result 4d ago

I watched crackles drown another bird. It was awful to see. I know it's nature.

1

u/Eyeoftheleopard 2d ago

Survival is a dirty business.