BirdNote; Sprinting with Cooper's Hawks

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