I believe this hawk is a Merlin. Its habitat includes our region here in Upstate New York.
We have spotted this beautiful bird many times in our area, and at this point, they don't seem to be bothered by our presence. At times they seem to be posing for a photo shoot.
On this occasion, the Merlin was perched about 25 feet up in a pine tree. It hung out on that branch for 10 minutes or so.
A stealth hunter, most often its prey are generally small to medium-sized birds in the 1–2 ounce range.
This year we were treated to a family of Merlins living in a pine forest about 50 yards from our front door. This adult Merlin decided to stand on the roof of my truck.
Well, any time one of these beautiful birds decides to grace us with its presence, out comes our camera. This guy was perched on the fence, located right out of our front door.
I quickly let @farm-mom know that the Merlin was back. After she grabbed the camera, she moved with the stealth of a lion on the hunt, trying to avoid detection.
As I sat on the front porch, whispering so as not to scare the bird, she took pictures from many angles. She couldn't understand why the bird didn't fly off. At one point, she even asked me if I thought it was sleeping.
Once she worked her way around to the front of the sleeping bird, seeing that it had made a snowball, she was totally confused.
Well, the Merlin was obviously sleeping. I had found it sleeping right outside of the house.
I was in awe of its beauty and decided to get it off of the cold ground and move it to a sunnier location.
Without making a sound, I thought this was a perfect time to get into the photo.
This is not the first time that a bird has flown into the picture window. Some have just knocked themselves out, while others have met their demise. About a week ago this little guy also decided it would like to get inside where it was a little warmer. Farm-mom was sitting by the window and heard something once again, hit the glass.
Upon further investigation, she knew what had happened.
Her only concern was whether this little guy was knocked out or if he would be joining the Merlin in Bird Heaven.
After several minutes, the little guy was showing signs of life and flew into this nearby tree. 😂
A few aspirin and that self-inflicted headache should subside.
This time around, a good ending to this head-on collision with the picture window made us both smile!
Thank you very much for submitting this to the OCD community.
Oh that poor majestic bird.
I can't believe you made me tip toe around to snap the pictures, never letting on he was already in bird heaven. Always the comedian.😁
That second head on happened just a day after the Merlin and I thought for sure he was gone also.
I was so happy when he finally shook it off and flew to the nearby tree branch.
Happy ending on that one.😚
This seems to be happening all too often. Heck, we even had Opie try to run through the front glass screen door.
um yea, the dog is crazy, but I love him.
I will push it to the top of the list, stained glass painted ornaments with scary faces.
I don't what else to do. Poor birdies.
I've often wondered the same thing when I see cats on the side of the road.
Animals sure do pick oddest places to catch some shut-eye
When your # is called, what're you going to do.
I have been looking at some of your buddies stuff, very cool.
Sure do appreciate that. He's a real talented young man. He's all about family, too, figured you'd enjoy his content.
You guy in Jersey? I think I said Florida earlier but meant Jersey.
Beautiful birds. I always feel awful when one hits the window, but because of all the nearby trees and underbrush they seldom are flying at full speed and they are usually stunned, not killed. Thankfully!
The hawks must fly into the glass at some high speeds, I'm just happy they haven't blown out the window yet. We had a pheasant crash through our double-pane kitchen window. We found him next to the woodstove, 12 feet from where the window was.
I hope it doesn't happen again, but I'm afraid it surely will.
I had a grouse break out a kitchen window in a cabin we once owned. What a mess that was because it was winter and we were not there and it wasn't discovered until weeks later.
Grouse look like a football when flying, compact and they get up to a good speed very quickly.
I think that many times birds see their reflection in the window and fly towards it. I have also heard that during a certain time of the year, there is a berry, not sure which one it is, but when the birds eat it they become disoriented, almost like getting drunk. This might explain some of the encounters with windows. I think they call that FUI.
Your post has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Try https://ecency.com and Earn Points in every action (being online, posting, commenting, reblog, vote and more).
Boost your earnings, double reward, double fun! 😉
Support Ecency, in our mission:
Ecency: https://ecency.com/proposals/141
Hivesigner: Vote for Proposal
Thanks for including this post in your encouragement program #ecency
What a handsome predator!
A beautiful bird for sure. Being that we were able to see the bird up close, its beauty was only more apparent.