The birds disappeared from my feeders for about 30 minutes the other day, and I soon figured out why. A Cooper’s Hawk was sitting about 60 feet up in an oak tree staring down at my feeding station. Then I noticed these two guys not too far away:
As I watched, they took turns running up the branch toward the hawk and then would turn around and go back down. One squirrel tried several different branches that were above and below the hawk. He always turned around once he got within about 15 feet, but he kept doing it over and over.
Meanwhile some House Finches and a Downy Woodpecker took turns flying around and landing on branches just above the hawk within about 8-10 feet.
The Downy came down for some suet and some juncos, goldfinches and chickadees visited the feeders for a bit while all the commotion was going on, but then everyone, including the squirrels, completely disappeared.
They seemed to understand this hawk would not be giving up until it got its lunch.