Cooper's Hawk

IDENTIFICATION
The Cooper’s Hawk is a medium-sized accipiter with short, rounded wings and a wingspan of 27 to 36 inches. These hawks are usually about 14 to 21 inches in length, and like most other raptors the females are larger than the males. Adult Cooper’s Hawks have a gray back (bluish-gray in males, brownish-gray in females) and a reddish, horizontally-barred breast and belly. Immatures have dark brown backs and cream-colored breasts and bellies with dark vertical streaking.

Eye color in all accipiters changes with age. As immature birds, their eyes are yellow. The color gradually progresses to orange, and eventually dark red in older adults.

Field identification of Cooper’s Hawks can be difficult as they closely resemble the Sharp-shinned Hawk in size, plumage color, and shape. However, in flight Cooper’s Hawks have a more protruding head and a proportionally longer, more rounded tail.

COOPER'S HAWK
IDENTIFICATION The Cooper’s Hawk is a medium-sized accipiter with short, rounded wings and a wingspan of 27 to 36 inches. These hawks are usually about 14 to 21 inches in length, and like most other raptors the females are larger than the males. Adult Cooper’s Hawks have a gray back (bluish-gray in males, brownish-gray in females) and a reddish, horizontally-barred breast and belly. Immatures have dark brown backs and cream-colored breasts and bellies with dark vertical streaking. Eye color in all accipiters changes with age. As immature birds, their eyes are yellow. The color gradually progresses to orange, and eventually dark red in older adults. Field identification of Cooper’s Hawks can be difficult as they closely resemble the Sharp-shinned Hawk in size, plumage color, and shape. However, in flight Cooper’s Hawks have a more protruding head and a proportionally longer, more rounded tail.
HABITAT AND PREY As a forest hawk, the Cooper’s Hawk inhabits extensive, mature woodlands in North America where it hunts for small to medium sized birds and mammals. Most western Cooper’s Hawks winter in Mexico, returning north to nest in April.
NESTING Cooper’s Hawks nest throughout the United States and southern Canada. "Coops" frequently return to the same nesting territory each year, but almost always build a new nest. The male is the first to return, actively defending the area against intruding males and engaging in display behavior to attract his mate. It is estimated that Cooper’s Hawks keep the same mate for as long as both birds are alive (about four to seven years). Both members of the pair build the nest. The structure is about two feet in diameter and constructed with pencil-sized sticks. Three to five whitish eggs are laid in May and incubated for 30 days. The young hawks remain in the nest for about one month, but continue to depend on their parents for food for another four to five weeks. The male provides most of the food , and the female defends the nestlings against predators. Coops rarely nest before they reach two years of age.
CONSERVATION Cooper’s Hawks in the West are currently threatened by deforestation, hunting, and pesticides. Due to their preference for streamside forests, populations of Cooper’s Hawks are especially sensitive to agricultural expansion along river bottoms. Their predilection for birds as their main prey makes them valuable indicators of pesticide levels and the overall health of forest ecosystems.
FURTHER READING Raptors: The Birds of Prey - An Almanac of Hawks, Eagles, and Falcons of the World, by Scott Weidensaul, Lyons & Burford, Publishers, © 1996. Hawks, Eagles & Falcons of North America, by Paul A. Johnsgaard, Smithsonian Institution Press, © 1990. Hawks in Flight, by Pete Dunne, David Sibley, and Clay Sutton, Houghton Mifflin Co., © 1988.