Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Tue Mar 17, 2020 4:46 pm

Mar 11: I went out early in the morning in the park to check for activity, and I heard some vocalizations coming from the trees just near the N entrance to the park. I saw one Coopers fly across over into the lower trees immediately across from its perch, after which it subsequently flew over into the conifers along the NE edge. After hopping around a number of times among the conifer branches, it then moved to the adjacent large deciduous tree. The interesting part is that this bird appears to be a juvenile female:

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The juvenile bird continued to make periodic kek vocalizations, and after a couple of minutes an adult male flew in and perched lower in the same tree. So it appears that there is for the present a new female in the territory.

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While the adult male roosted nearby, the female continued to move a couple of times to different trees and making quite loud vocalizations, it seemed to be working hard to get the attention of the male, although not with that much obvious response.

After leaving the park for approx 30min, I came back and found the juvenile female roosting in a tree in the yard just beside the E entrance to the park:

Image

Finally, she flew off her perch and over several of the houses and ended up back on a pole just outside the park entrance for a couple of minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7eV06ZWIEk

Mar 17 - I was out in the park at approx 7:20am, and shortly found the adult male making some kik calls along the N edge of the park. I then spotted the juvenile female in the large tree just at the NE edge, she was reaching down to her feet and brushing back and forth with her beak, so she might have been just finishing off a food delivery from the male. She was responding to the male's vocalizations so they appeared to be interacting. This suggests that this female is indeed going to be sticking around in the territory, barring the previous female showing up and getting into the territory again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7m4l-SHGOM

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Thu Nov 26, 2020 6:09 pm

Nov 12: I had my first sighting of a Coopers in the local area since the spring, just E and a bit N of Silverthorn Park. This adult was perched in a tree in the front yard of a house right at the edge of some open fields which are part of the local high school E of the park. This house has a number of bird feeders in the front yard and often has quite a few pigeons, as well as passerines and squirrels around. The Coopers was clearly watching the feeders.

Several minutes afterwards it flew down to some other trees bordering the backyards farther E.

Image

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu6mV8xvcso

Nov 26: Just walking back to my building just immediately S of the park at around 4:30pm, some passerines flashed past some of the trees near the building and then a Coopers passed right by and flew past the N side of the building and then into the park. I was able to locate in some of the trees towards the middle of the park close to the N entrance and it had made a capture and was consuming it. However it then flew off with the prey and I lost track of it. However this is more indication that there are certainly Coopers active around the area, the first clear observations I've had of that since the merlins have been in the area.

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Thu Dec 03, 2020 1:32 pm

Nov 29: In the early afternoon I had an interesting sighting, there were two Coopers soaring together over the south end of the park, they were reasonably high and did not appear to be hunting, but were more or less circling around and flying as a pair. This suggests there are at least two different individuals in the area, and their behavior could be an early male-female or courtship type interaction.

Some time later after seeing both hawks continue flight out of sight out of the park area, I did hear kek vocalizations coming from somewhere close to the building at the SW corner of the park. I was not able to find where the vocalizing bird was - however it also is a hint at interactions between the pair, as usually individuals on their own rarely vocalize.

Dec 1: In the morning around 9am I again found an adult Coopers roosting in the same trees near bird feeders bordering the athletic fields just E of the park. This is a good indication at least one individual is regularly hunting these feeders.

Image

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klS9SJjkVKs

Dec 4: I had a brief sighting of a Coopers in early afternoon passing across the road just a bit further E from the same spot, passing across the road from S to N, and down through other backyards that border additional sidestreets in the same area. So the bird likely was also hunting other spots in and around there.

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Fri Dec 18, 2020 6:17 pm

Dec 17: Another sighting of an adult near the same bird feeders. Image

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Sat Dec 26, 2020 7:19 pm

Dec 25, another sighting of an adult, which flew into some trees approximately 30 yards away from the same feeder area and then left.

Image

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JudyB
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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by JudyB » Sat Dec 26, 2020 7:29 pm

I’m guessing you haven’t seen a resident pair here before, so this may be a new territory? It will be interesting to see how they make it their own.

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Mon Jan 11, 2021 8:27 pm

JudyB wrote:
Sat Dec 26, 2020 7:29 pm
I’m guessing you haven’t seen a resident pair here before, so this may be a new territory? It will be interesting to see how they make it their own.
These birds I'm spotting near the feeders are mere seconds as the Coopers flies from the center of the Silverthorn Park territory, so it's reasonable to assume they are part of that territory. Whether they will resume using it as a nesting area after last season's hiatus will be interesting to see (but there was one other similar hiatus back in 2016 I think).

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Mon Jan 11, 2021 8:34 pm

Jan 10: I got a sighting of two Coopers in the area of the feeders by the athletic fields, once flew into some trees just across the street, and while it was there a second one came in, and seemed to swoop through where the first was, it was hard to see what interaction there was, but there were some vocalizations. Then the 2nd one that had come in kept going to the west out over open field and roughly towards the park.

Jan 11: Around early afternoon there was one individual perched in the trees in close to the same area.

Image

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Mon Mar 01, 2021 4:58 pm

02/28: I was out in the park early, around 6:40am and was able to catch individuals in the park for the first time thus far this spring. I observed one adult individual that was making kik calls in the NW corner of the park. Over several minutes it moved to different spots along the north edge of the park after approx 30 seconds of making kik calls.

After it moved to one of the large trees in the NE corner, a second Coopers that also appeared to be adult came in and ended up flushing it from its perch (but I do not believe there was any food or food exchange). From there both birds ended up in the trees along the S edge of the park, and then back to the NW corner over a couple of minutes. Finally they left the park out of the N edge.

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Thu Jan 06, 2022 12:18 pm

With the Silverthorn Coopers hawks not nesting in the park the past two years, sightings of individuals have been much more infrequent, however yesterday some loud calls by blue jays pointed out an adult Coopers at the N edge of the park (from size it looked likely to be adult male).

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Sun Apr 03, 2022 5:43 am

Unfortunately so far there has been no obvious sign of presence or nesting activity in Silverthorn Park, so it appears likely the territory is no longer active again. I have sighted individuals in the area occasionally so there is still presence but I don't know exactly where they are.

04/01 There was an individual not far NE of the park.

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The hawk was being followed around and harassed a fair bit by a crow. I've seen quite a bit of crow activity in the neighborhood so there might be a crow territory somewhere.

Image

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Sun Apr 03, 2022 5:46 am

The Coopers hawk pair at Colonel Samuel Smith park seem to be preparing for nesting, over the past week they have definitely been constructing a new nest in a deciduous tree at the SW edge of the little bowl area, which is in the NE corner of the park. It's definitely been added to in the last week, and yesterday morning the male was continuing to fly sticks up to the new nest, along with mating. But it did not appear eggs have been laid yet.

Image

Image

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Fri May 06, 2022 8:37 pm

An interesting situation has arisen in a territory I was able to find earlier this spring - this territory is in Martin L. Dobkin Park, which is roughly 3km west of the Silverthorn Park territory. The park borders the property of two schools, which have some athletic and other fields, and two separate wooded areas on either side. I had checked the area in early April, as the wooded areas looked like good potential nesting areas, although I was not aware of any past presence there.

On April 6, I located two adults in the wooded area on the west side of the park, there was a nest structure under construction in a tall deciduous tree. Both birds were in full adult plumage.

Male:

Image

Adult female:

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Some footage of the pair:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAkZfoH2T_M

On a couple of occasions between April 6 and April 20, I'd checked the area and observed the adults on some occasions both in the original area in the west side of the park, but also working on an alternate nest being constructed in the trees on the east side. By Apr 20, the pair had clearly chosen the latter nest site, as the female was observed in incubation position on the nest.

On Apr 30, I visited the nest site on the east side in early evening at approx 18:50. Walking towards the nest area I was able to spot the female on nest. Around 18:53 I spotted another Coopers flying towards the line of trees near the nest from behind me and landing in a tree approx 20m from the nest tree. I initially assumed this would be the territorial male coming in perhaps to make a food delivery or visit the nest area. However, upon approaching the new bird I was surprised to discover a bird in juvenile SY plumage, and from general build and size the impression was a female.

Image

At 18:55 the adult female was still present on the nest, despite the SY (female?), but the territorial male was not around. However she behaved like potentially she had noticed and reacted to the presence of the SY individual.

Image

Although I did not unfortunately see the actual interaction as I was attempting to walk to a better vantage point, but between 18:56 and 19:00 the SY female had apparently displaced the adult female from the nest, the latter having landed in a tree nearby, while the SY female stood in the nest, looking inside briefly and perhaps taking an interest in the contents. After several minutes the SY female left the nest. By 19:07 the SY bird had apparently left, and the adult female was still off nest, but periodically making whaa calls. I don't know if those were possibly intended to attract the attention of the territorial male for assistance in resisting this intrusion, but no other adult was present while I was there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLFcojxBIUk

On May 1 I was able to see that the adult female was still present and on the nest, however I quickly found that the SY female was also sitting again near the nest area.

Image

After this I did witness the SY female flying up towards the nest and try to enter and presumably displace the adult female again, the adult stood up and reared up and the SY bird stopped short of landing on the rim and subsequently flew off to the other end of the park. So at this point it seemed clear this SY bird was indeed actively trying to usurp the territory and/or the nest.

By my check on Apr 2 however, there was no longer any sign of the adult female on the nest or nearby - nor was the adult male in evidence. The SY female was still present and I observed her bringing a stick up to the existing nest, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfQHODD-Pqc

On Apr 3 and Apr 5 I have observed the SY female on both days also apparently working on a minimal nest structure in a different tree across the wood from the original (abandoned) nest. When bringing sticks to this new nest, this SY female has made audible kik calls a couple of times after landing. This is a less common call for females to make but they will occasionally do so.

On Apr 5 from approx 07:15 - 07:55 there was no presence in either the nest area or the wooded area on the W side.

- at approx 07:55 the SY female arrived in the east wooded area with a faint kik vocalization upon arrival.
- at ~08:00 the SY female broke off and flew a stick up to the small/initial nest structure, making clear kik vocalizations on the first flight up to this structure. From 08:00-08:15 the female continued building activity on this nest, periodically breaking off branches and flying sticks up a total of 8 times, along with a few occasions of sticks being dropped or abandoned before being placed. There were no vocalizations upon later stick deliveries after the initial one.
- at ~08:30 the SY female flew one stick up to the abandoned initial nest and again made a kik vocalization upon doing so. Then she left the nest to roost in a tree along the N edge of the wood. No adult birds were observed in the area during this period.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps9Jh4NwBuY

Image

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Standing in original nest

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JudyB
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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by JudyB » Fri May 06, 2022 8:56 pm

Interesting behavior indeed, ostrich - thanks for posting it here. I don't know much about coopers hawks so am extrapolating from eagle behavior, but I am wondering if something happened to the territorial male. I don't know if he'd challenge a female, but if they were eagles, he'd likely come in to protect the nest so the female who was nesting could go after the young female. Please let us know what happens next.

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Re: Coopers Hawk (accipiter cooperri)

Post by ostrich » Mon Jan 02, 2023 3:43 pm

Generally there are wintering hawks in the area, although they can be more distributed and a bit less predictable. However with the heavy cold snap around Christmas, I strongly suspected any hawks in the area might show up near one location in the neighbourhood close to the park, where there are usually feeders up in the yard. The yard would be attractive to mourning doves and pigeons that are generally there, as well as any wintering songbirds.

My hunch was correct, as I went by and found one individual perched in a tree right next to the feeders, then it flew a short distance down an adjacent side street and perched there. In the past I've seen both adults and juveniles in the winter on different occasions, but this bird was juvenile.

Image

Yesterday I checked again and discovered a hawk in a tree close to the same spot but I was a bit surprised to discover that this was definitely a different individual, so there are multiple hawks in the area:

Image

This bird definitely has a large degree of adult markings in the contour feathers, although it seems to be partly in transitional plumage, as there are some visible contour feathers with juvenile teardrop shaped brown markings still down the middle of the breast.

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