I could use some help identifying a bird from a pile of feathers. Saturday a large scattering of black and white feathers appeared in and around the small thicket behind my house. A Cooper's hawk has been hanging out there. In fact, when I walked into the thicket to examine the feathers yesterday, I surprised the hawk (actually, we surprised each other) and it flew away. Some of the smaller feathers are pure white and the larger ones are gray along the shaft and then black with large white spots. Do red bellied woodpeckers have spotted feathers? I have been finding these feathers in my yard for a couple years... one at a time, and I always thought they belonged to the helmeted guinea fowls that are kept by someone up the street and allowed to roam free. My back yard feeders and bird bath are a favorite place for these fowl to visit. But upon finding so many of them and suspecting a Cooper's hawk, I wonder could a Cooper's hawk really take down a guinea fowl which is quite a large bird? If the feathers belong to a woodpecker, wouldn't at least some of them be striped? Of course, I'm hoping it was a guinea fowl. There have been 5 of them lately and I will count them the next time I see them. I haven't seen them since finding the feathers, but then I wasn't home much this weekend. I'd appreciate any help you can offer on this. Thanks. Carole Gobert Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================