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Cooper's Hawk

Accipiter cooperii

Photo by EmilyMarino
Published on Project Noah
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39.7097, -105.086

Field Notes

Description:

A medium-sized hawk with the classic accipiter shape: broad, rounded wings and a very long tail. In Cooper’s Hawks, the head often appears large, the shoulders broad, and the tail rounded.

Adults are steely blue-gray above with warm reddish bars on the underparts and thick dark bands on the tail. Juveniles are brown above and crisply streaked with brown on the upper breast, giving them a somewhat hooded look compared with young Sharp-shinned Hawks' more diffuse streaking.

Notes:

A last minute outing to find some frogs turned out to be a great hour of birding! I had photographed several shore birds and was on my way back to the car when I saw a solid dark bird in a tree. I knew it was something cool. As I got closer I realized it was a Cooper's Hawk (which I have been dying to photograph!) He had recently killed what I think is a pigeon. He didn't stay long and my photo is very grainy but is was very exciting to finally see one of these guys up close in the wild!

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (9)

Haha! Thanks Joshua! It was kind of exciting to see him! I can't tell you how many missed opportunities I've had over the years to photograph a coop! I finally got one! Not the best picture, but special non the less!
Awesome! I can't believe more people haven't seen this. wonderful shot of a hard to see bird performing an even harder to see task :) love it
OK...I think it's a pigeon!! Great shot and congrats on getting your coop! ;-)
Thank you again Sachin and thank you Mona! I did feel lucky! I wish my pictures had come out better but it was still exciting to see him and hear him chirp and squawk at me as I walked by!
Wow.. That is very nice.. Lucky spotting..

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