Cooper's Hawk

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The Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) is a medium-sized hawk.

Adults have short broad wings and a long round-ended tail with dark bands. They have a dark cap, blue-grey upperparts and white underparts with red bars. They have red eyes and yellow legs. Adult females are much larger. This bird is somewhat larger than a Sharp-shinned Hawk, but smaller than a Northern Goshawk. It appears long-necked in flight.

Their breeding habitat is forested areas across southern Canada, the United States and northern Mexico. They build a stick nest in a large tree.

They are permanent residents in most of the United States. Northern birds migrate to the southern U.S. and Mexico.

These birds surprise and capture small and medium-sized birds from cover or while flying quickly through dense vegetation. They also eat small mammals such as mice and other small rodents. Other possibilities are lizards, frogs, snakes and large insects. They often pluck the feathers off their prey on a post or other perch.

This bird was named after the naturalist William Cooper, one of the founders of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

References

• BirdLife International (2004). [Accipiter cooperii]. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

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