In the last week I wake up most mornings to the sound of hawks around my house. The sound of the ones I have been hearing lately is surprisingly similar to a seagull.
I woke up at 6:24 this morning to the sound of a couple of birds chirping very loudly. I went to the window and saw a relatively small hawk on a low branch of an oak tree near the house. It had a brown body and beautiful brown and white striped (or speckled?) wings. (Because of the earlier caterpillar infestation that has finally come to an end, the trees look like early spring with new growth just beginning so it is easy to spot most of the birds that would normally be fairly well hidden by leaves by this time in the summer.) Two robins were nearby, hopping from branch to branch and flying fairly close to it every now and then cause it to lift its head or ruffle its wings a bit. The robins seemed distressed by the presence of the hawk- they must have had a nest nearby.
This went on for about ten minutes and then the hawk lifted its wings and flew low through the woods to another tree about a hundred back. The robins followed it and continued their commotion at the hawk's new post. So now I know, when there is a loud chirping of robins, where the hawk is.
Yes, robins warn other birds of predator birds approaching. I have observed crows doing this very same thing when hawks are around, but they are the predator birds and they clear the territory of competition!
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