Just click to identify that mystery bird

www.percevia.com

Five mysterious urban raptors have taken over our Brazilian pepper tree, gleefully dining on Venice rats, sparrows and fledgling squirrels. The air whistles with kek kek kekks and keer keers.

Neighbors peer up, debating hotly: hawk, falcon, kestrel or merlin? The argument is quickly settled with a few clicks on www.percevia.com.

The field narrows to two: Cooper’s hawk or sharp-shinned hawk. One more click on the audio indisputably confirms our voracious visitors as Cooper’s hawks.

The website is an easily accessed database of information on 789 North American birds. Choose from basic categories: shape, wings, head, beak, color, location and vocalization, and with a few clicks you’ve nailed your bird.

Other sites are more encyclopedic, but for identification, this one’s fast and very user-friendly. I posted a photo and description on the Forum and instantly two experts weighed in with more identifying info.

-- Susan Dworski