Northern Flicker tragedy

Northern Flicker with tail fanned

Cooper's Hawk with Northern Flicker, note the tail feathers on the ground next to the raptor.

Remember that Northern Flicker displaying photo I posted yesterday? Shortly after the photo was taken we looked out to see this Cooper's Hawk, adult, catch a bird in our field. When we looked through the binos we could see the golden tail feathers of a Northern Flick lying next to the Cooper's Hawk!
I do not know if that was the exact same flicker I had photographed, since there were three flickers interacting. But now there is one less flicker and a well fed Cooper's Hawk. I always have such angst when I witness the swiftness of the death of a bird taken by a predator like the Cooper's. So sudden! If gives me a heightened sense of why birds in the wild are always so alert and on the lookout. One moment of inattention and you could be gone.
Then again, Cooper's Hawks are exciting raptors and they have to eat too. They're not mean, they're just hungry.