Small bird of prey in the school ground

by Mel
(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

Hi. When most of the children left the school ground (in Ottawa, Ontario) and only a handful remained to play, we saw a small bird of prey fly, sit on a wire, then fly down to the middle of the field to dust itself.

One parent commented "That's an ugly Crow!" but it certainly was NOT a crow! I watched it.

It's bigger than a Peregrine, but not very large. Mostly brown. I'm not sure what kind of bird it may be - someone thought a young Hawk. About 1 ft tall may be?

Such excitement in the middle of the school grounds!

We have had other birds of prey a bit larger in the neighbourhood last year.

I will have to try to get pics! :)

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by: Alexis

Actually a Peregrine Falcon is a good sized bird of prey 16". A similar size to a Cooper's, Red-tailed etc. They can be deceiving in size depending on the length of their tails.

Three of the smaller ones would be a Sharp-shinned Hawk at 11", the Merlin measuring 10", and the American Kestrel 9".

I've seen a Merlin three times last week sitting on a telephone phone swoop down in to a field very quickly after prey.

So that may have been what you saw.

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