On March 29, 2014, I witnessed one of the most terrifying and spectacular attacks by a Cooper’s hawk on our purple martins. I have never seen anything like it and can still see the “video” playing over and over as I recall the event.
It was around 2:00 pm on a sunny day with a cool northwest wind blowing. Bob, my next door neighbor and I were talking near his shed when we decided to go in. He headed to his house and I proceeded to mine.
There were perhaps 30 or 40 martins still flying around our two colonies though most had left to feed. Some new arrivals had come in and when this happens the permanent residents will often remain longer at their nests to guard their territory.
Suddenly blood curdling screams of terror erupted from some high flying martins and many martins at our colonies bolted and headed southeast toward an open pasture across the street from our housing. The martins were flying low and building up speed.
I yelled that a hawk attack was imminent and Bob, who is rather hard at hearing, heard nothing! The screams of terror coming from the martins seemed electronically amplified!
I looked up to the northwest and saw a brown bird shaped like a tear drop or bullet! The raptor was maybe 200 feet high and coming at about a 45 degree angle straight toward Bob’s martin colony! The brisk north wind help propel the raptor and its speed was unbelievable.
At first I didn’t know the identity of the raptor. Was it a merlin, a sharp-shinned hawk or a Cooper’s hawk! The raptor turned above Bob’s colony and then I knew what it was. It was a Cooper’s hawk and probably a male due to its size; female Cooper’s hawks are bigger than the males and are about as large as a crow.
The hawk started pumping his wings which were still close to his sides as he started his dive toward several martins that were still flying low down over the pasture. Strangely these martins were not flying that fast and that was their HUGE mistake! Were they oblivious to the Grim Reaper that was preparing to swing his grisly scythe! This is one of the worst situations a martin can be in when a fully accelerated Accipiter hawk is ABOVE the martin. The martins were maybe 100 yards from our colonies and there was nothing I could do to intervene.
The hawk selected a male martin and closed in for the kill. The martin was at a severe disadvantage as the hawk was ABOVE the martin and coming in faster; the martin really had no place to go except bank downward toward the ground and try to out-turn the hawk. And the martin was only about ten feet high! When an Accipiter hawk is ABOVE a low flying martin and forcing the martin downward, from what I have seen, the hawk will usually catch the martin and pin his prey to the ground.
The hapless martin tried to outturn this highly agile hawk several times but it was hopeless; the hawk grabbed the martin and both hit the ground. Accipiter hawks have long tails and short rounded wings which are superior to the long pointed wings of a martin in close quarter maneuvering at low altitudes with the martin below the hawk. The Accipiter hawk wing design is superior to the martin wing in explosive acceleration though a fully accelerated martin can usually out fly an Accipiter in a sustained chase. The hawk performed like an oversized flycatcher and used his long tail as a rudder to match every move of the fleeing martin.
I was about 100 yards away but I still sprinted across the road in front of our colonies, climbed through a barbed wire fence enclosing the pasture, and ran toward the hawk which was on the ground and facing toward me. He flew up WITHOUT the martin and beat a hasty retreat to a nearby woodlot!
I knew the martin was on the ground somewhere because I did NOT see him fly up after the attack. Maybe he was injured, in shock, or even dead.
After searching the pasture area where I saw the hawk go down, I finally found the male martin. He was dead and had blood coming from his mouth indicating a talon had penetrated his body. A fallen warrior!
I took him home and buried him near my martin colony. I wondered if he was part of my colony or Bob’s and how many years he had made that long journey from South America to come home. Perhaps he had faced the Grim Reaper many times in the past and survived the Reaper’s scythe. But not this time.
When I got home, I took a photo of this fallen warrior. This is the position he was in when I found him on the ground.
Steve
