FWIW, I had a spectacular view of a Cooper's Hawk diving on a crow outside 
my tenth story office window on Friday (in Crystal City, VA). Didn't get to 
see if the hawk was successful, and they fell below my view...

----Original Message Follows----
From: Jonathan Balcombe <>
Reply-To: Jonathan Balcombe <>
To: 
Subject: [MDOSPREY] hawk nabs crow
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:18:49 -0400

This afternoon shortly after 5pm I witnessed a hawk take down a crow. It
happened just south of the intersection of Great Seneca Hwy and Quince
Orchard Blvd. I saw a flash of wings as the crow apparently tried to evade
the hawk, then saw the two birds, locked together, come down onto the tarmac
right on GSH. As I continued south, glancing often through my rearview
mirror, I noted several other crows dipping back and forth over the road
where the attack occurred. Corvids are known to mob in such situations.



I was driving and wasn't able to stop or note the fate of the birds, but
there was no sign of either bird when I drove past that intersection two
hours later.



My best guess based on size and coloration of the raptor is that s/he was a
Cooper's hawk. Does anyone know if Cooper's hawks, or any other hawks in our
area, are known to take Fish crows or American crows? I was very surprised
by this and would have thought it a rare event for even one of the larger
raptors to do this.



Jonathan Balcombe

Germantown, MD





Author: Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good
(Macmillan, 2006)

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