Get to know the fast and fierce Cooper's hawk
- Meghan McMahon
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
Cooper's hawks are a common raptor species that can be found across much of the United States as well as Mexico and southern Canada. They are migratory, but they can be found in Illinois all year long.
These hawks are considered a forest bird and prefer deciduous forests, but it's not unusual to see them in parks and yards and neighborhoods.
While many hawks are named for an element of their physical appearance, the Cooper's hawk is named for a person. The species was named for ornithologist William Cooper, who was the scientist who collected the specimens of the birds that were used to initially describe the species.
Who's who?
Cooper’s hawks belong to the accipiter family of hawks, which are forest-dwelling hawks with short wings and long tails that help them fly through the trees. Other accipiters in North America are the sharp-shinned hawk and the American goshawk.
Words to know
Brood: A family of young animals, especially birds, produced at one hatching or birth.
Canopy: The uppermost part of trees or branches, forming a layer of foliage.
Contaminate: To make something impure.
Navigate: To find its way.
The sharp-shinned hawk is strikingly similar in appearance to the Cooper's hawk, and the two birds are often confused for one another. The two also have similar behaviors and habitats, adding to the confusion.
Both birds are steely gray or grayish blue on their backs and wings with white and rusty red barred plumage on their underparts. Cooper's hawks are the larger of the two. They are similar in size to a crow, while sharp-shinned hawks are more similar in size to a blue jay.
A few other physical differences between the two include their head shape and tail feathers. Cooper's hawks have blocky, dome-shaped heads, while sharp-shinned hawks have smaller, rounded heads. The tail feathers of the Cooper's hawk are also more rounded, while the sharp-shinned hawk has a straight edge to its tail feathers.
A bird that eats birds
Don't be surprised to see a Cooper's hawk hanging around your backyard bird feeders. But it’s not the bird seed they are after. Instead, they are on the hunt for the birds visiting your feeders.
Like other birds of prey, Cooper's hawks hunt small animals. Their prey of choice is primarily birds. They especially hunt medium-sized birds like mourning doves, European starlings, robins and jays. They'll even sometimes go after larger birds like pheasants and quail and even chickens. In addition to birds, they will also hunt small mammals, although this is more common in the western part of their range.
They typically hunt while perched above, scanning all around for prey. Once they spot a meal, they will wait for it to look away and then swoop down for the catch. Thanks to their excellent flying skills, they can give chase if necessary, navigating with ease through tree canopies.
Cooper's hawks are mostly quiet birds. They don't sing like songbirds do, but males and females will communicate with one another during breeding season. Males will call out with a loud cak-cak-cak sound while attracting a mate. Both males and females will make a similar sound when they have to defend their nests. Females are less vocal than males, but they do call out as they approach the males.
Like many other raptors, Cooper's hawks typically mate for life. In Illinois, breeding season is from April through June.
They nest in trees, typically building their nests about two-thirds of the way up the trunk. The males are the main nest builders. The female will occasionally help by supplying nesting material. Sticks are used to build the structure, then it is lined with bark and twigs. The entire process takes about two weeks.
Females lay one brood of eggs a year, containing anywhere from three to six eggs, but normally four or five. The female is the primary incubator, and the eggs typically hatch after about five weeks. Both parents will provide food for and look after the young hawks. They will have grown enough to leave the nest after about a month, but the parents will continue to feed them until they are about 2 months old.
Back from the brink
The population of Cooper's hawks has been rising in recent decades, and they are a species of low conservation concern. However, their population was at one time declining sharply for the same reason that the populations of bald eagles, peregrine falcons and other birds were under threat. In the middle 20th century, these birds were at risk because of the use of the pesticide known as DDT.
DDT was used to control insects. When Cooper's hawks and other birds ate insects that had been contaminated by it, the chemical began to collect in their bodies. Over time, this affected the birds' ability to nest because it caused their eggs to have thin, weak shells that did not allow chicks to properly incubate and hatch. The use of DDT was banned in the United States in 1972, and the populations of the birds impacted by it have since recovered.
Now that their population has recovered, Cooper's hawks play a key role in the ecosystem by helping control the population of some of the birds and mammals they hunt. Main threats to their population today include habitat loss. Collisions with windows and other objects also pose risks to the birds, particularly in more urban areas. Cooper's hawks are protected by federal law in the United States, making it illegal to hunt, kill or possess them.
