The Cooper's Hawk ( Accipiter cooperii ) is a medium-sized hawk found throughout North America, known for its agility in flight and preference for wooded habitats. This article delves into the Cooper's Hawk's diet and hunting habits, exploring its ecological role and interactions with other species.
Identification
The Cooper's Hawk is a crow-sized accipiter, belonging to a group of hawks known for their short, rounded wings and long tails, adaptations suited for maneuvering in dense cover. Adults exhibit blue-gray upperparts and white underparts with rufous barring. Their tails feature alternating dark- and light-gray bands and a white tip. A dark crown contrasts with a lighter nape, and their irises transition from yellow in young birds to orange and eventually red in older adults. Juveniles, on the other hand, have brown upperparts and cream-colored underparts with reddish-brown streaks.
Distinguishing Cooper's Hawks from Sharp-shinned Hawks can be challenging, as both species share similar features. However, Cooper's Hawks possess rounded tails, while Sharp-shinned Hawks have squared-tipped tails. In flight, the head of a Cooper's Hawk projects further beyond the leading edge of its wing compared to the Sharp-shinned Hawk. The Cooper's Hawk also exhibits a more stable flight pattern with deeper wingbeats.
Habitat
The typical Cooper’s hawk habitat is a copse of tall trees with good canopy that is beside a clearing like a streambed. The Cooper’s hawk habitat includes deciduous, mixed-deciduous, and evergreen forests, as well as suburban and urban environments. Compared with Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks tend to nest in more open areas that have older and larger trees. It makes little difference to the hawk if this choice is a riparian forest or a city greenbelt, as long as the wood is populated with prey. Cooper's hawks are naturally drawn to areas where their prey abound, so they often learn to hunt birds attracted to backyard bird feeders.
Hunting Strategies
Stealth, surprise, and speed are hallmarks of the Cooper’s Hawk hunt. The Cooper’s hawk uses a variety of tactics to pursue and capture his prey. Most often he conceals himself among the leafy boughs of a tree and awaits an unsuspecting bird, which he will pursue with a great burst of speed, capturing the bird with his talons. Short, rounded wings combined with a long tail that provides lift and acts as a steering rudder facilitate rapid navigation through the confines of their forest and woodland habitat. The hawk may run along the ground or stoop from flight as a means of capturing prey.
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The Cooper’s hawk will pursue his prey swiftly and fearlessly into the brush and limbs of a tree, sometimes at his own peril. The species is persistent when chasing prey, and will pursue mammals on foot. Individuals sometimes submerse and drown their prey in lakes and ponds.
An opportunistic feeder, the hawk also hunts for a variety of live prey. Watching chickadees and finches jostle at your feeder provides countless hours of entertainment. And every once in a while, a Cooper’s Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk might fly in and stir things up.
Diet
The Cooper's Hawk feeds mainly on medium-sized birds, in the size range of robins, jays, flickers, and also on larger and smaller birds. The hawk prefers small- to medium-sized birds, such as doves, starlings, jays, grackles, pigeons, quail, and… yes… Additionally, the Cooper's Hawk eats many small mammals, such as chipmunks, tree squirrels, ground squirrels, mice, and bats. Sometimes it eats reptiles and insects. Avian prey are typically plucked before being eaten. During the breeding season, prey are plucked at traditional plucking posts within the pair’s territory. At other times of the year, Cooper’s Hawks often pluck their prey at the capture site. Both the male and the female cache surplus food on branches near the nest during the breeding season. The species feeds primarily on small- to medium-sized birds and mammals. Songbirds and gamebirds are the main types of avian prey consumed, and rodents are the most frequently taken mammals. Prey include American Robins, Blue Jays, European Starlings, Northern Flickers, and Eastern Chipmunks. In addition to mammals and birds, Cooper’s Hawks also take reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects.
Using his long toes and talons, he squeezes, releases, and squeezes the bird until it no longer moves. He then plucks the feathers from the bird and consumes it in its entirety.
Coexistence with Sharp-shinned Hawks
Cooper’s Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks co-occur throughout much of North America. Miller and colleagues found that Sharp-shinned Hawks took smaller-bodied birds, such as juncos and Pine Siskins most often. Cooper’s Hawks also took smaller-bodied birds, but they mainly took medium and larger-bodied birds, such as European Starlings and pigeons. Miller explains that a focus on different size prey may be one component that allows these species to coexist. Even though Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks are notoriously difficult to distinguish, Miller and colleagues found that their results held up even if some observers may have made an error in identifying the hawks.
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Breeding Habits
These Hawks nest in deciduous, mixed-deciduous, and evergreen forests, as well as in suburban and urban environments. Compared with Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks tend to nest in more open areas that have older and larger trees. The species builds stick nests that are 61-71 cm across. Most nests are placed in a main crook of the tree or on a large, horizontal branch against the trunk, usually in a well-concealed location in the upper part of a tree. Raccoons and Great Horned Owls are the most common predators of eggs and nestlings. Although pairs typically return to the same nesting area year after year, these Hawks usually build a new nest annually. Replacement clutches are sometimes laid if the first clutch is lost before or at the beginning of incubation. The species usually lays three to five eggs. Incubation takes 30-36 days, and the female does almost all of the incubating. After the eggs hatch, the female broods the nestlings continually for the first 14 days. While the female remains at the nest, the male provides food for her and their young. The female feeds the nestlings and the male usually delivers prey to her. If the female is away from the nest when the male returns, he will drop off food at the nest but will not feed the young. Young fledge when they are 27-34 days old. Smaller males develop faster and leave the nest earlier than larger females and, overall, western birds appear to fledge sooner than eastern birds. For 10 days after they leave the nest, the young continue to return to the nest to roost and for food. The young remain near the nest and close to each other for at least five to six weeks. During this time, young Cooper’s Hawks gradually begin to hunt on their own.
Conservation Status
The current population of this wholly North American species is estimated to be between one-hundred thousand and one million birds. The numbers of Cooper’s Hawks increased dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s. Currently, the species is common in many areas of the western United States, and many regional populations are increasing.
Cooper's Hawk and Humans
If you put out seed for birds in your backyard, there’s a chance you’ll also attract the attention of a Cooper’s Hawk. While catching smaller birds is just doing what comes naturally for a Cooper’s Hawk, many of us would prefer not to share the responsibility for the deaths.
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