American Cooper's Hawk Habitats: Blue-Gray Body, Blue Egg, Platform Nest

Summary: Blue eggs in platform nests give North American Cooper's hawk habitats blue-gray bodies seasonally in Canada and Mexico, year-round in the United States.

Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii) in Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex, northern California; March 15, 2011: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library

North American Cooper's hawk habitats agree with arborists, master gardeners, master naturalists and tree stewards through Accipitridae raptor family appetites for starlings in distribution ranges in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Cooper's hawks bear their common name and the same-meaninged scientific name Accipiter cooperii as the namesake raptors for New York-born naturalist William Cooper (1798?-April 20, 1864). Agro-industry, pollution, predation, recreation, tourism and urbanization challenge Cooper's hawk, described in 1828 by French naturalist Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte (May 24, 1803-July 29, 1857). Fall migrations draw paired and solitary Cooper's hawks southward for Mexican winters whereas spring migrations drive the sharp-shinned hawk's big-headed, round-tail-tipped lookalike northward for Canadian winters.

Ten-plus-year lifespans expect fields, grasslands, savannas and water near coniferous and deciduous forests, open woodlands and wooded parklands of cottonwood, fir, hemlock, juniper, pine and sycamore.

February through May facilitate breeding one three- to six-egg clutch, followed by a second if the first blue-tinged, non-glossy, smooth, subelliptical to elliptical, white eggs fail.

Fathers-to-be gather sticks and twigs into 2- to 4-inch- (5.08- to 10.16-centimeter-) deep, 6- to 8-inch- (15.24- to 20.32-centimeter-) high platform nests, preferably amid dense conifers. Nests house 1.85- to 1.93-inch- (47- to 49-millimeter-) long, 1.46- to 1.49-inch- (37- to 38-millimeter-) wide eggs 10 to 60 feet (3.05 to 18.29 meters) up. Mothers-to-be initiate 24- to 36-day incubations, with the third egg, in bark-lined nests with inner 8-inch (20.32-centimeter) and outer 24- to 28-inch (60.96- to 71.12-centimeter) diameters.

Parasitic fly larvae, helminths, lice and tapeworms and predatory American crows, great horned owls, northern goshawks, raccoons and red-tailed hawks jeopardize North American Cooper's hawk habitats.

Semi-helpless nestlings know brown-tinged blue-gray eyes that yellow in juveniles and redden in adults, a first creamy-white, short down and a second short, silky, white down. They live off parentally foraged food, launch feathering at 17 to 38 days and feeding at 21 days and leave nests at 30 to 34 days. They maintain contact with parents while they manage hunting skills over the next three weeks, for independence at eight weeks and sexual maturity at two years. Adults need blackbirds, catbirds, chickadees, crows, finches, flickers, flycatchers, grackles, grosbeaks, nuthatches, orioles, owls, quail, robins, sparrows, thrashers, towhees, veeries, verdins, vireos, warblers, waxwings and wrens.

North American Cooper's hawk habitats at 1,968.5 to 9,842.52-foot (600- to 3,000-meter) altitudes offer winter's coldest temperatures at minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 26.11 degrees Celsius).

Ability to attack prey in mid-air or from branches, adaptability to noisy, polluted urban lifestyles and avoidance of nesting songbirds and territorial intruders protect Cooper's hawks.

Brown tails, adult-like in barring, length and rounded tips, brown-streaked light underparts, mottled dark brown upperparts and yellow eyes, legs and toes qualify as juvenile hallmarks. Dark crowns, dark- and wide-banded gray tails, gray-blue upperparts, red eyes, red-barred underparts and white-banded tail tips reveal broad-, round-winged, broad-shouldered, chipmunk- and squirrel-preying, round-tailed adults. Fast, gliding, soaring flight on 28- to 34-inch (71.12- to 86.36-centimeter) wingspans suggest 13- to 19-ounce (368.54- to 538.64-gram), 15.5- to 17.5-inch (39.37- to 44.45-centimeter) adults.

North American Cooper's hawk habitats transmit 40 calls, including ca-ca-ca-ca by courting pairs and nest-defending parents, kik by mates and whaa by females to food-foraging males.

illustration of Cooper's hawk eggs; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate XLIV, figure 2, opp. page 171: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii) in Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex, northern California; March 15, 2011: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library @ https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/natdiglib/id/12793/rec/4

illustration of Cooper's hawk eggs; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate XLIV, figure 2, opp. page 171: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908293

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Harrison, Colin J.O. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2005.

Bonaparte, Charles Lucien. 1828. "Cooper's Hawk Falco Cooperii." American Ornithology; Or, The Natural History of Birds Inhabiting the United States, Not Given by Wilson, vol. II: 1-11. Philadelphia PA: Carey, Lea & Carey.
Available via University of Wisconsin Digital Collections @ http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/DLDecArts/DLDecArts-idx?type=goto&id=DLDecArts.AmOrnBon02&isize=M&submit=Go+to+page&page=1

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volumes 8-11, Birds I-IV, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Jones, Howard. 1886. Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. Illustrations by Mrs. N.E. Jones. Vol. II. Circleville OH: s.n. (sine nomine).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908243

Peterson, Alan P., M.D. "Accipiter cooperii (Bonaparte) 1828." Zoonomen: Zoological Nomenclature Resource > Birds of the World -- Current Valid Scientific Avian Names > Accipitriformes > Accipitridae > Accipiter.
Available @ http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/acci.html