Cooper's Hawk

The birds of prey in North America each belong to a specific family. For brevity's sake, we will list only those birds from each family that are commonly seen in Southern California.

The family Cathartidae includes three vultures. Our vulture is the Turkey Vulture.

The family Falconidae includes our familiar American Kestrel, the Merlin (who only spends his winters here), the Prairie Falcon and the Peregrine Falcon.

The family Accipitridae are our familiar Kites, Hawks and Eagles. Within this family is a genus called Accipiters. These are hawks characterized by their long tails and short, rounded wings. In Southern California, our Accipiters are the Cooper's Hawk and the Sharp-shinned Hawk.

These Accipiters are the fast, falcon-like hawks whose body structure allows them maneuverability in closed woodland areas; unlike the genus Buteo (the larger broad-winged hawks) who must hunt in open areas.

Being very similar in habits and appearance, the Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks will be discussed together, citing their minor differences. Hopefully, this will allow the novice birder to easily identify each one.

The Cooper's Hawk is larger and more common than the Sharp-shinned, with relative lengths being the Cooper's 14 to 20 inches as opposed to the 10 to 14 inches of the "Sharpy". In both birds, the female is larger than the male. Their adult eye color ranges from orange to red with the juveniles having yellow eyes. Cooper's Hawk has a longer more rounded tail and a large head. The "Sharpy" has a shorter, squared tail, appearing notched when folded, with a smaller head and neck than the Cooper's. Male Cooper's and male and female "Sharpies" are slate blue above while the female Cooper's is brownish blue and larger than the above mentioned birds. Immatures of both birds are similar in appearance, as is the vocalization of each.

Cooper's Hawk being examined.

Nesting in the spring, both lay 3 to 5 bluish eggs, primarily incubated by the female; although the nest itself is built primarily by the male.The young of each fledge in about 2 months, just in time for the young hawks "in training" to prey on the immature songbirds which is their preferred diet.The Cooper's will also take small mammals and can often be seen perching on telephone poles, a habit not shared with the "Sharpy".

Both the Cooper's Hawk and the Sharp-shinned Hawk provide an enormous benefit to our environment by removing the weaker (or dumber) members of our small bird populations, thus allowing the stronger, more intelligent and faster songbirds to be the main contributors to the gene pool of any given area.

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