Thank you everyone for the follow-up on identifying the hawk in my backyard. The smaller hawk is definitely not a Sharp-Shinned Hawk; it's as large as a crow and the large one is half again as large.
Around 4:00pm this afternoon I watched the smaller one (from a second floor window) sitting on my backyard fence devouring what looked like a freshly caught woodpecker. It had just plucked it clean and was going for the neck when I saw it. I watched it for about 20 minutes. It took the kill to two more trees over the course of 30 minutes and then returned to my backyard where I was able to watch it for close to an hour. The question is, and I'm not sure how to ask it: are these birds territorial or do they roam a lot. I'm trying to figure out if I'm going to be seeing them this Spring and Summer. Is my neighborhood (52nd and Humboldt Ave S) home or do they roam in large areas? Robert Metcalf.
