Michelle, that's kind of wild. What a trip and what good photographs given the circumstances. They're very clear. The only time I ever heard of this kind of behavior was from a peahen who had a young one and saw her own reflection in the brand new, black, paint job on a Porche door. She pecked the paint to ruins.

Spring is close, I wonder if the bird thought that might be a possible mate?

Poor Izzy! I wonder what was going through her head? I'm glad she didn't decide to go through the glass. Scoop (my Chessie) stood and stared out of the window at seagulls on the front lawn today, but they were not close like this.

That can be a very awesome experience. I've not had one sit in my windowsill, but have them often very near it as that is where we keep our feeders. I think you got yourself a very handsome Coopers Hawk there.

I can only imagine the dog's reaction. It's almost as if the bird was taunting her (hear bird making raspberries...pffffffffffffffffttttttttttttttt) for a soundtrack. I'm surprised it didn't stick it's middle talon up. roflmao.

We see hawks all the time here, but never close to the house & certainly not on our window sill. I'm not sure what is the most fascinating - seeing the hawk sitting here or looking at Izzy's intense stare. My dog probably would have gone right through the window!

Cool!!
I am guessing the poor thing accidentally bumped the window and knocked himself a bit silly...and had to recover a bit before taking off again.
I think it's likely a coopers too. Kestrals are little, like a robin and have a very distinct "swoosh" by the eye.
Linda C

I'll go with Coopers too, in retrospect. Steve said "Kestrel" with such conviction that I just believed him without looking into it. It was definitely "big hawk" sized.

I'm having a hard time understanding how he could have bumped into this window accidentally. You can't see it from this photo, but we have a rather overgrown red bud tree in this little interior corner of our house's exterior, so a bird has to land in the tree, turn around, and swoop down to reach it.

He seemed very alert, and intermittently intent on attacking either Izzy's head, or his own reflection. (I couldn't be sure which.) He pecked at the glass with that beak and then flew against the glass with his talons extended. It was amazing to watch, and I was afraid he was going to shatter the glass. I watched him fly to a tree in our backyard afterwards.

It did seem as though the bird was taunting the dog. And I burst out laughing the one time Izzy broke eye contact with it and glanced over her shoulder at me as if to say: "Shoot it! Shooooooooot it!"

I've been out tonight, but Steve says Izzy's been patrolling the windows all evening. I swore I could smell the adrenaline surging through her during the encounter.

Springtime I've had many kinds of birds attack their reflections in the windows. They are setting up their territories. Why not a hawk? The picture is great.

Good pictures!

We had a small hawk visit last week... It didn't really match any of the pics in the Audobon's, but maybe it was a grey. DH didn't get any pictures so now I'm doubly envious of yours.

Wow! I missed this due to school issues yesterday. Awesome! I get giddy just watching them in the wild, but on a window so close you could touch it, if it didn't peck your hand or attack you with its talons extended. But, hey that's close.

They are awesome! I had the good fortune (?) to rescue one out of the chicken-run one evening. We had netting over the run because of hungry red-tails, but this Cooper's (I first thought Kestrel, but too big) probably was after one of the sparrows cleaning up after the chickens, somehow got under the netting and could not get out.
I wrapped my arms in towels, put on a heavy jacket and leather gloves and managed to pick the bird up by the feet, even so, one towel slipped and I ended up with a talon-scratch on my wrist; it was worth it, though.
Peroxide took care of cleaning the scratch, I have a fine scar as souvenier.

That would take guts, Lilo. I'd hope I could get up the nerve to do something like that. They are one of my fav birds and they certainly work hard for their food. I watched a young one last year just getting its adult markings, come to the feeders and walk around like it expected a bird to fly into its mouth. Then it flew into the vines near the feeders and like to tangled itself into perpetuity.

The only one I've ever picked up was a very young one in a freak late April blizzard. It was laying, exhausted in the snow. I called the Dept of Natural resources, took it into warmth, hoping it would recover, but it passed away within a couple hours, before we could arrange finding a rehabber. I cried over that one.

It was late evening and getting dark, that was in my favor. It also gave me motivation to do what I did.

Your pictures are really neat! Poor Izzy, her agitation is certainly understandable --so near, but yet so far.

Periodically, we have a hawk--Cooper's, I think, from what all of you have said--that visits our back deck in search of a stray bird. While we'd be sorry if he caught anything, his appearance is so wonderful, we're always glad to see him. Especially since we live in the midst of close-together villas with very small backyards.