Overview
Cooper's Hawk: Medium, agile hawk with dark blue-gray back and white underparts with many fine rufous bars. Cap is darker than upperparts. Eyes are red. The tail is long with thick black-and-white bands. Legs and feet are yellow. Alternates rapid wing beats and short glides, often soars on thermals.
Range and Habitat
Cooper's Hawk: Breeds from southern Canada to southern U.S. Prefers patchy deciduous and mixed forests.
Topo Map:
Hawk-like Body
Listen to Call
Voice Text
"kac-kac-kac", "kuck, kuck kuck, kuck"
Interesting Facts
The Cooper’s Hawk was first described in 1828 by Charles Bonaparte, a French naturalist and ornithologist who was the nephew of Napoleon. It was named after William Cooper, who collected the first specimen.
It captures a bird with its feet, and will squeeze it repeatedly to kill it, instead of biting the prey to kill it in the fashion of falcons. It has also been known to drown its prey.
They capture prey from cover or while flying quickly through dense vegetation. This can be dangerous, a recent study found that 23 percent had healed fractures in the bones of the chest, especially of the furcula or wishbone.
A group of hawks has many collective nouns, including a "boil", "knot", "spiraling", "stream", and "tower" of hawks.
Bird Term Glossary
Author
Gary Owen Dick
Artist
Yury Lisyak
.