Common Black-Hawk eating crayfish photo request

[DAVID A LEATHERMAN]

An awesome , quick response from Kevin Ash (finder of the Common Black-Hawk) and Cinnamon Bergeron has resulted in photos from Cinnamon showing the bird with a crayfish on the dam, and reference to photos in the eBird checklists of Alan Ketcham and Diane Roberts showing the hawk with crayfish.  These are all great verification that this somewhat lost young bird is acting as normally as a Common Black-Hawk in Colorado can by finding a good source of "mud bugs" (as crayfish are called in the South).  In Ohio we called them crawdads.  Alan's photo shows the bird on the dam with two big claws lying next to it on the concrete.  Obviously, this big hawk does what many others birds, most notably gulls, do when preparing to consume crayfish - they remove the claws.  Many waterbirds like Pied-billed Grebes and Hooded Mergansers skin the cat a little differently, probably because of the difficulty inherent with being in water and possessing feet adapted for pushing water, not delicately manipulating food: they just orient the morsel tailfirst and then swallow it, claws and all.

Thanks to the folks above for their finding, photographing and sharing efforts.

Dave Leatherman

Fort Collins

[kickback]

The hawk was still munching away at 4 PM Sunday and very easily found by the dam and a little bit downstream..

Bill Kosar

Colorado Springs

[kickback]

Picture of Common Black Hawk and crayfish remains

http://www.avoapples.com/birds/1Z7A8057_cr.jpg

Bill Kosar

Colorado Springs

El Paso County

[Brendan Beers]

Case in point, this young Common Mergie took a little while to find the right end of this “mudbug” and in the end succeeded and shared a wry “smile” at the end of the meal.

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 13, 2020, at 4:26 PM, DAVID A LEATHERMAN <daleat...@msn.com> wrote:



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