City Hawks Versus Country Hawks

Resident Cooper’s Hawks that nest in the urban areas of Albuquerque, New Mexico, are thriving as the populations of doves, their prey, have exploded. The easy prey gives the urban birds a competitive advantage over hawks in more natural habitats, where prey is less concentrated. The soaring numbers of urban Cooper's Hawks could help preserve the genetic diversity of the species far into the future.

BirdNote^®

City Hawk, Country Hawk

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

[Cooper’s Hawk call]

Resident Cooper’s Hawks that nest in the urban areas of Albuquerque, New Mexico, are thriving. So much so that they could be outcompeting other migratory Cooper’s Hawks that nest in the surrounding countryside. Just what advantage do these city hawks have?

Cooper’s Hawks are crow-sized raptors that nest in tall trees and prey mostly on birds. Since the 1980s, populations of White-winged Doves — perfect hawk prey — have exploded in urban Albuquerque.

[White-winged Dove call]

This easy prey gives the urban birds a competitive advantage over hawks in more natural habitats, where prey is less concentrated.

How’s that? Well, rural hawks migrate south in winter to hunt while urban hawks remain year round, according to a study by Brian Millsap of New Mexico State University. As the resident city hawk population has grown, the birds have started emigrating to the countryside, claiming rural nesting sites before the migrating hawks return.

[Cooper’s Hawk call]

But that’s not necessarily bad news for the species as a whole. The soaring numbers of urban Cooper's Hawks could help preserve the genetic diversity of the species far into the future.

[Cooper’s Hawk call]

For BirdNote, I’m Mary McCann.

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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Managing 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 ML236739701 recorded by R. Dzenkiw, Cooper’s Hawk ML 288451151 recorded by M. Wistrand, and White-winged Dove ML 45201 recorded by G. Keller.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2021 BirdNote January 2021 Narrator: Mary McCann

ID# COHA-03-2022-01-03 COHA-03

https://phys.org/news/2017-12-urban-cooper-hawks-outcompete-rural.html

https://www.birdnote.org/show/urban-coopers-hawks

https://bioone.org/journals/the-condor/volume-120/issue-1/CONDOR-17-124…