A Feather Mystery

• Sketches and Notebooks

A tail-end view of a raptor flying away grasping another bird as its prey.
A discarded pile of feathers and a skull found in the yard.
Who was the predator?

A bit of research and measurements easily revealed the meal was a female Cooper’s Hawk.
Earlier, I found a large primary feather in the yard, and did not know its owner. More research, measurements and comparison of specimens brought the conclusion to the likelihood that a Northern Goshawk was the hunter.

Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis)
Pencil and watercolor on Canson Montval Watercolor sketchbook. 9x12”