This thread is for discussion of the Coopers hawk (accipiter cooperri).

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/coop ... ifehistory


IMG_0268 by ostrich2, on Flickr

The Coopers hawk is one of the three accipiter species of hawk in North America, and have become a common urban hawk in a number of areas.

We do not currently have any documented Coopers hawk nest cams, but if anyone finds one, please post it!

Does anyone know of a Coopers Hawk web cam? I have observed a pair of nesting Coopers hawks for four years, & this year something has happened to the chicks - a predator or some other misfortune! I would love to watch another pair. I will try to post a pic of last year's fledgling enjoying a meal.

Quote by: raptorz4ever

Does anyone know of a Coopers Hawk web cam? I have observed a pair of nesting Coopers hawks for four years, & this year something has happened to the chicks - a predator or some other misfortune! I would love to watch another pair. I will try to post a pic of last year's fledgling enjoying a meal.

Oh no that's too bad raptorz4ever - I know of a Coopers nest near me that's been successful for a number of years but this year the nest seem to be abandoned before hatching. Unfortunately I've never come across a Coopers cam - in fact there are very few accipiter cams at all - the closest I've seen is a goshawk cam or two out there - but they weren't really good quality. I think it's harder to get a cam on them because they build nests in relatively small trees and tend to move their nest trees frequently. But if you ever come across one please post it!

Welcome to the forum!

I have been very fortunate to have an active Coopers hawk nest in the park beside my home this year - the park has had Coopers around for several years now, but in previous years they either did not lay eggs, or appeared to do so but never seemed to hatch any chicks. However this year, there is a nest and three hawklets.

The female is a young subadult bird, so she would have been hatched last summer, and is already nesting herself (this appears to be common at least for urban Coopers hawks).


IMG_0578_CRP_ADJ_SM by ostrich2, on Flickr

The male has full adult plumage.


IMG_0630_CRP_SM by ostrich2, on Flickr

The nest tree is in the center background among a treed area in one corner of the park - it can't really be seen from a distance but from closer to the tree it is easy to see.


IMG_1834 by ostrich2, on Flickr

After watching the nest and the female carefully through the nest building phase and gradually watching her spend time near the nest this summer, I concluded she was certainly incubating by the first couple of weeks of May (actually a couple of weeks later than some other pairs in this area had been incubating) - but I didn't get my hopes up too much yet because the 2009 pair incubated but never hatched any eggs and finally abandoned in early July.

However on June 10 I had this rather exciting finding at the bottom of the nest tree:


Hatched_Coopers_Hawk_Egg_1 by ostrich2, on Flickr

The good news was confirmed when I was able to see feedings shortly after that - it took a while trying to see from the ground but once hawklets got old enough to be seen over the edge of the bowl I was able to confirm three hawklets.

All three are just about fledged now - two are fledged and the second is branching and isn't too far behind the other two I think.

Over the subsequent weeks I was able to observe the hawkets gradualy getting closer to full growth:


IMG_0615_CRP by ostrich2, on Flickr


IMG_0610_CRP by ostrich2, on Flickr

By early July the hawkets were starting to show quite a bit of feather development, although they still had quite a lot of white down:


IMG_1904_CRP by ostrich2, on Flickr

By the 2nd week of July all three hawklets had clearly shown further development,


IMG_1946_CRP by ostrich2, on Flickr


IMG_1955_CRP by ostrich2, on Flickr