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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 pursue the sparrows on foot. This hawk will even climb after a nimble squirrel dashing up a pine tree.
BirdNote®
Sprinting with Cooper’s Hawks
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
[Cooper’s Hawk, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/109074]
The Cooper’s Hawk is a fearsome sight, with a razor-sharp beak and unflinching, blood-red eyes. These raptors hunt primarily from flight, using speed and stealth to surprise their prey — mostly birds like doves. But they’re adaptable and opportunistic in both what and how they’ll hunt.
[Cooper’s Hawk, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/288451151]
Imagine this: a Cooper’s Hawk dives into a flock of sparrows feeding on the ground. The birds scatter into a large, dense shrub, and freeze tight.
The hawk missed snatching a sparrow, but now standing on the ground, still determined, it strides briskly on its long legs over to that dense shrub. Walking under the lower branches, the hawk searches intently for its quarry.
Elsewhere, a Cooper’s Hawk flies swiftly to a tall pine tree, alighting just below an unsuspecting squirrel. The squirrel darts upward, and the hawk quickly follows, clambering after the squirrel, around and around the trunk.
[Cooper’s Hawk, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/288451151]
If it takes a little sprinting or climbing on foot to nab a bird or squirrel, Cooper’s Hawks are up to the challenge.
[Cooper’s Hawk, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/109074]
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Production Manager: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Digital Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Cooper’s Hawk ML 109074 recorded by G Keller, and Cooper’s Hawk ML 288451151 recorded by M Wistrand.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© August 2021 BirdNote Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# COHA-04-2021-08-13 COHA-04