All the yard birds striking windows of a house in Maple Creek ravine in
Seattle, except one, have been Varied Thrushes. This despite falcon
silouhettes on all the windows. Passerines have very poor depth perception
since they lack binocular vision, but why not Robins, which are much more
common? Possibly all the depth perception-impaired Robins met their demise
a long time ago. The exception was a male Flicker which had been coming
to a suet feeder regularly, a few feet from a window.

Sharp-shinned Hawks apparently have no trouble dealing with pigeons, and by
analogy, anything smaller, such as a Varied Thrush. I noticed a SSHA
polishing off a pigeon near by back yard several years ago. From time to
time pigeon feathers in the alley behind my house have suggested other
predations. SSHA show up regularly in this very urban environment but I've
never seen a Cooper's.

Herb Curl


h.curl at hazmat.noaa.gov "You may be only young once but you can be
Hazmat/NOAA, 7600 Sand Pt. Wy., NE immature the rest of your life."
Seattle, WA 98115-0070
(206) 526-6272