Birds

We have lots of birds that live in our yard, encouraged by the plants which provide food and habitat, and the abundance of bugs for the bug-eaters, not to mention the seed feeders we try to keep filled. I don't have a lot of photos of birds, but here is a Cooper's hawk that lives in our neighborhood. This is a juvenile I believe; these hawks have been breeding around here for several years. They feed on smaller birds, and this one seems ideally positioned above and to the left of one of our feeders where finches and sparrows gather to feed, except of course when the predator showed up the little birds all scatter into the safety of nearby vines and shrubs.

Another day two recently fledged mourning doves perch in about the same spot as the hawk. These two are the fifth or possibly sixth hatch from the dove nest in our patio cover this year. If the hawks didn't take an occasional dove, well, I do believe we might be overrunning with doves.