Velociraptor

One of at least two Cooper's Hawks that are hunting the place.
The other is immature, and thus more brown than all these fancy colors

Counting birds, when suddenly all goes silent. Birds melt, some tucking up under the edge of the foundation, some in the Christmas trees that form a windbreak for the ground-feeding birds, some flying off as fast as light.

This bird, a flying appetite, sails over to perch on the big elm by the heifer barn, or in the nearby trees, or even on the roof of the house itself.

I haven't seen it take any prey, but he, or more likely she, as this is a big bird, has left some marks.

There is a Mourning Dove with a ruffled neck and only one tail feather and a White-throated Sparrow with no tail at all.

I have only one question...why, does this hungry predator not eat any and all of the 35 Brown-headed Cowbirds that come in to hoover every single seed off the big feeder and scare all the other birds away?

Why?