The Lord of Leisure1 Photo Gallery
Cooper’s Hawk
Lord of Leisure writes:
The Cooper’s Hawk is a woodland hawk with impressive acrobatic skills. Unlike the previously featured Red Tailed Hawk and Barred Owl, the Cooper’s Hawk uses its flying talents to maneuver through trees and limbs to prey on other birds.2
All About Birds points out that this is not a strategy that is without risk.
Dashing through vegetation to catch birds is a rather dangerous lifestyle. A recent study found that 23 percent of all Cooper’s Hawks examined had healed fractures in the bones of the chest, especially of the furcula or wishbone.
Footnotes
- Lord of Leisure was previously known in these posts as Mr. Science. Both Lord of Leisure and Mr Science spend most of their time disguised as Neil Ellis, mild-mannered, retired teacher at a great suburban school system, who can identify a bird by its call, complete the New York Times Friday Crossword in ink, and snap a heck of a photo. ↩
- From All About Birds: “A Cooper’s Hawk captures a bird with its feet, and will squeeze it repeatedly to kill it. It does not bite the prey to kill it in the fashion of falcons, but holds it away from its body until it dies. It has been known to drown its prey, holding a bird under water until it stops moving.” ↩
