Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)

Identifying a Bird in Flight

January 17, 2023 One of the most difficult skills to pick up as a birdwatcher is how to identify birds in flight. You have to sort through a series of visual clues all at once, at high speed: silhouette, wing shape, how fast it flaps, and patterning. An experienced birder will take in all these and other

City Hawks Versus Country Hawks

January 3, 2022 Resident Cooper’s Hawks that nest in the urban areas of Albuquerque, New Mexico, are thriving as the populations of doves, their prey, have exploded. The easy prey gives the urban birds a competitive advantage over hawks in more natural habitats, where prey is less concentrated. The

How Much Do Birds Eat?

November 25, 2021 There used to be a saying about somebody who doesn’t eat much — “she eats like a bird.” But how much does a bird typically eat? As a rule of thumb, the smaller the bird, the more food it needs relative to its weight. A Cooper’s Hawk, a medium-sized bird, eats around 12% of its weight per

Sprinting with Cooper's Hawks

August 13, 2021 Cooper’s Hawks hunts primarily from flight, using speed and stealth to surprise prey — mostly birds like doves. But they’re adaptable and opportunistic in both what and how they’ll hunt. If a Cooper’s Hawk misses catching a sparrow on its first dive, it will sometimes walk into a bush to

Urban Cooper's Hawks

June 23, 2021 Next time you’re in the city, look up. When pigeons are wheeling, you might just see a different bird in pursuit. The Cooper’s Hawk, once known as the “chicken hawk,” used to be in steep decline due to hunting and the effects of DDT on breeding. Today, it’s the most abundant of the bird

Providing Water for Birds

March 30, 2021 From chickadees to Cooper’s Hawks, most birds love a good bath. Some birds get the fluids they need from their food, but many birds need a drink at least twice a day. Water is essential for birds, and supplying clean water for them to drink and bathe in is a great way to help maintain

Tony Angell Reflects on Nature

October 18, 2020 Tony Angell, gazing on Puget Sound, writes: "From the beach below, that evocative perfume of the sea, decaying kelp, is wafted up on the breeze... Near the shore, disputing kingfishers rattle in their mercenary manner, chasing one another... Behind me, in the woods, a Cooper's hawk chants

Shifts in Habitat = Shifts in Species

August 2, 2020 We asked David Sibley, creator and illustrator of The Sibley Guide to Birds, how changes in the environment are affecting birds such as this Brown Thrasher. He says, “A shift of habitat has caused a shift in the species” he's observed in the Northeastern US. For example, Wild Turkeys

Riding with Red-tails

February 8, 2020 Traveling home after a flight into Seattle’s Sea-Tac airport, you might share a ride on the shuttle with a Red-tailed Hawk! To protect passengers, planes, and birds, airport biologists Steve Osmek and Bud Anderson capture raptors for relocation away from the airport. Then, as a public

Bird Scare - Interview with Carl and Rita Comfort

November 4, 2011 When it's time to pick their four acres of wine grapes, Carl and Rita Comfort would rather the birds didn't beat them to it. Without some form of bird control, they could lose about 10% of their harvest. So at their vineyard, Comforts of Whidbey, they broadcast the distress calls of birds

Sizing Up Birds of Prey

February 8, 2008 In most birds - if the sexes vary at all in size - the male is larger. But with many hawks and falcons, the pattern is reversed. And female birds of prey are most notably bigger than males among hawk species that hunt agile prey, such as other birds. Perhaps the female Cooper's Hawk's