Not how it’s done in nature films.

Three times these past few days the kids and I have seen a Cooper’s Hawk hunting the House Sparrows in our front yard. Two of those times she made a kill while we watched. We think she’s made at least one other kill in our yard when we weren’t looking, because we found a pile of feathers in our back yard which looked like they might have been from a robin, along with a single feather which could have come from a Cooper’s. The sparrows are acting a lot more wary and are not coming to the feeder as much as they use to. (It’s in kind of an exposed position.)

The first time we saw the hawk, it landed in the middle of our front yard and then ambled over to the hedge which grows along the front of our house. It stood there for a moment, and then it made a small hop. As casually as a man might pick an apple from an apple tree, it plucked a sparrow from the hedge and settled down to the ground with the sparrow held in one foot. It stood by the hedge again for a while, presumably waiting for the sparrow to stop struggling, and then flew off with it.

Usually, in nature films when you see a raptor make a kill, it is with a dramatic swoop or dive. They never show a hawk standing next to a bush and pulling sparrows out of it.