Hawks at feeders: which one you have, and what to do about it

The short answer

• Two hawks account for almost every feeder hunt in North America: Cooper's Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk. Both are bird specialists, and a feeder is the densest concentration of small birds in the neighborhood.
• The reliable fix is cover, not deterrence. Dense woody cover 10 to 12 ft from the feeder gives songbirds a two-second escape they do not have on an open lawn.
• If a hawk has settled into a daily routine, take every feeder down for 10 to 14 days. A shorter break does not break the pattern.
• Killing, trapping, shooting or deliberately harassing a hawk is a federal offense in the United States and is illegal under provincial and territorial wildlife law across Canada.
• The most dangerous moment for your birds is the flush, not the strike. A panicked flock scatters into glass, so fix your window distances before you fix anything else.

A feeder is a machine for concentrating small birds in one place at predictable times. Two North American hawks make their living catching exactly those birds in exactly those places, so a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk in your yard is not a sign that something has gone wrong. It is a sign that the food web you set up is now three links deep.

That is genuinely worth something. It also means your junco flock is having a bad week, so here is what you can change and what you legally cannot.

Which hawk you have#

Almost every feeder hunt in the US and Canada is one of two accipiters. Buteos such as the Red-tailed Hawk do turn up in yards, but they are usually there for squirrels, rats or voles under the feeder rather than the birds on it, and they perch in the open for long periods instead of arriving low and fast.

Do not try to identify by size alone. Female accipiters are much larger than males, and a big female Sharp-shinned overlaps a small male Cooper's almost exactly. Work the tail tip first, the head projection second, and treat everything else as supporting evidence. In the West, a Merlin will occasionally take feeder birds too, but it is a falcon: pointed wings, no long rudder-like tail, and it hunts from a high exposed perch rather than by ambush around a house corner.

Why this is a compliment to your yard#

An accipiter will not spend its time somewhere that does not pay. A resident Cooper's Hawk means your station is holding enough birds, for enough of the day, to be worth a predator's time. Yards with a handful of visitors do not get hunted.

The species most often on the receiving end are the flocking, ground-oriented birds, because a tight flock in the open is the easiest thing to catch. Look at who a millet or mixed-seed ground tray brings in:

• Top-tier favorite for: Mourning Dove, Dark-eyed Junco, White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow, House Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird
• Eaten readily by: Eastern Towhee, Common Grackle
• Taken occasionally by: Northern Cardinal, House Finch, Purple Finch, European Starling

Mourning Doves, House Sparrows and juncos crowding a ground tray are, from a hawk's point of view, a single large target. If you want to reduce hunting pressure without dismantling the station, the highest-leverage change is not a deterrent. It is cutting the size of the flock you assemble on open ground, which usually means dropping the cheap mixed seed and the ground feeding and running safflower or sunflower hearts in hanging feeders instead. Fewer House Sparrows means fewer hunts.

What actually works, in order#

1. Fix the cover distance first. Songbirds need somewhere to be within about two seconds. Dense woody cover, a brush pile, an evergreen, a thick shrub, placed 10 to 12 ft from the feeder is the whole trick. Closer than that and you have built a cat ambush point. Further than about 15 ft and the birds are making an exposed crossing every time they flush. If the only cover in your yard is 40 ft away across a lawn, you are running an open-air feeding station and you will lose birds.
2. Take the whole station down for 10 to 14 days. Every feeder, including suet and any ground tray. Two or three days does nothing: an accipiter that has learned a productive spot will check it repeatedly for the best part of a week after the food stops. Give it long enough that the songbird flock disperses and the hawk drops your yard from its circuit.
3. Stop feeding on the ground. This is the single most effective structural change. Birds on the ground have the fewest escape options and the slowest launch.
4. Move the feeder, not just the cover. A feeder tucked against the side of the house or under a low branch removes the hawk's approach line. A feeder in the middle of an open lawn gives it a clean run from three directions.
5. Accept the seasonal shape of it. Accipiter pressure spikes during autumn migration and again in hard winter weather. Many yard "hawk problems" are a bird passing through in September or October and are gone in two weeks without you doing anything.

The law: you cannot kill, trap or harass it#

In the United States, native hawks are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Killing, capturing, trapping, injuring, possessing or deliberately harassing one without a federal permit is a criminal offense, and the protection extends to nests and to loose feathers. If a hawk kills a bird in your yard, leave the remains and the feathers where they are. Picking up the feathers of a protected native bird is itself a violation, however harmless the intent.

In Canada, birds of prey sit outside the Migratory Birds Convention Act but are protected under provincial and territorial wildlife legislation, with fines and prosecution available in every province. There is no jurisdiction in North America where "it was eating my songbirds" is a defense.

Removing the food is legal, immediate and more effective than anything on the prohibited list. That is the whole point of the 10 to 14 day blackout.

The hidden cost: the flush#

The strike is not what kills most of the birds at a hawk incident. The flush is.

When an accipiter comes through, twenty birds leave the feeder in the same half second, at full speed, aiming at whatever reads as open sky. A window that reflects trees and cloud reads as open sky. This is the classic circumstance for a fatal collision, and it is why a hawk visit and a thump on the glass so often happen on the same morning.

Two numbers fix most of it. Put feeders either within 3 ft of the glass, so a bird cannot build up lethal speed before it arrives, or more than 30 ft away, so the glass is not the first thing on the escape path. Everything in between is the dangerous band, and it is where most people hang a feeder. The full treatment, including exterior marker spacing, is in window strikes.

After the hawk moves on#

Expect the yard to stay quiet for a few days beyond the hawk's last visit. Birds keep avoiding a place that recently frightened them, so an empty feeder is not evidence the hawk is still around. Rehang everything at once, refill with fresh seed, and give it a week before you conclude anything. If the yard is still empty after that, work through no birds at my feeder, because at that point something else is going on.

Longer term, the yards that lose the fewest birds to hawks are the ones with layered structure rather than a lawn and one pole. A hedge, a brush pile and a few dense native shrubs, positioned using where to put a bird feeder and the planting notes in native plants and cover, do more for survival rates than any device sold to scare a predator away.

Frequently asked questions#

How do I get rid of a hawk at my bird feeder?

You remove the reason it comes. Take every feeder down, including ground trays and suet, for 10 to 14 days. The songbird flock disperses to other food, the hawk stops finding meals in your yard, and it moves its hunting circuit somewhere else. When you rehang, put dense cover 10 to 12 ft from the feeder and cut the ground feeding that concentrates doves and sparrows in the open. Scarecrows, owl decoys, shiny tape and noise makers all fail within a few days on a hawk that has learned the yard.

Is it illegal to shoot a hawk?

Yes. In the United States, native hawks are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and killing, capturing, trapping or harassing one without a federal permit carries criminal penalties. That protection covers the bird, its nest and even its loose feathers. In Canada, birds of prey are protected under provincial and territorial wildlife legislation with comparable penalties. Protecting your feeder birds is not a legal defense. Removing the food is legal and works better than anything else.

How do I tell a Cooper's Hawk from a Sharp-shinned Hawk?

Look at the tail tip and the head. A Cooper's Hawk has a rounded tail with a broad white band at the end, and a big head that projects well past the wrists in flight. A Sharp-shinned Hawk has a square or slightly notched tail tip and a small head that seems to sit between the shoulders. Sharp-shinned legs are pencil-thin, Cooper's legs are noticeably thicker. Size fails you: a big female sharpie and a small male Cooper's overlap almost exactly.

Will a hawk kill all the birds at my feeder?

No. Most hunts fail, and an accipiter takes a small number of birds relative to the traffic through a busy feeding station. What actually thins a yard is the disturbance: birds stop coming while a hawk is hunting the area, so the feeder looks dead even though very few birds have been killed. Activity usually returns within a few days of the hawk shifting its circuit, and often within hours if the hawk is only passing through on migration.

Should I take my feeders down when a hawk shows up?

Only if the hawk has become a resident. A single sighting is normal and needs no response. If you are seeing strikes on most days for a week or more, take everything down for 10 to 14 days, then rehang with better cover. Do not take the feeders down for two days and put them back: an accipiter will check a productive site repeatedly for several days after the food stops, so a short break teaches it nothing.

Why did all my birds vanish and my window get hit at the same time?

That is the signature of a hawk flush. When an accipiter comes through, the flock explodes outward at full speed toward whatever looks like open air, and a reflective window reads as open air. This is the single most common circumstance for a fatal strike at a feeding station. Move feeders to within 3 ft of the glass or beyond 30 ft of it, and treat the outside of the glass with a dense pattern of markers.

Sources and further reading

1. Cooper's Hawk identification Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds Size, structure and plumage marks used in the ID table
2. Sharp-shinned Hawk identification Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds Tail shape, head projection and leg thickness marks
3. Migratory Bird Program US Fish and Wildlife Service Federal protection of native raptors under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
4. Feeding Birds Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch Cover distance and feeder placement guidance