sulliv's Identifications

Friend sent me a photo of an Accipter she saw for I D. Photo credit: A. Holberg.

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) is a medium-sized hawk in the Hawks, Eagles, and Kites (Accipitridae) family. Cooper's Hawk has a long tail with black horizontal stripes and short rounded wings, giving this woodland hawk great agility. "Flight is several quick wingbeats and a glide. Females are larger than males. Looks similar to Sharp-shinned Hawk, but is larger with a bigger head. Cooper's Hawk has a long rounded tail tip, unlike Sharp-shinned Hawk that has a squared off tail tip.
Diet is mostly medium size birds and small mammals. Usually hunts by stealth, moving from perch to perch in dense cover, listening and watching, then putting on a burst of speed to overtake prey. Sometimes cruises low over ground, approaching from behind shrubbery to take prey by surprise."
Conservation Status: Apparently secure (S4) in California, US (NatureServe). Was S3; See: https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.100417/Accipiter_cooperii

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, ed. Jon L. Dunn, 7th ed., 2017, pp. 278-279.

Ebird with species description, range map and sound recordings: https://ebird.org/species/coohaw/ and https://ebird.org/explore

Audubon Guide to North American Birds https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/coopers-hawk

Monterey Birds, Don Roberson, 2nd ed. 2002, sponsored by Monterey Peninsula Audubon Society, pp. 158-159.

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of Western North America, ed. Jon L. Dunn, 2008, pp. 104-105.

Xeno-canto Bird songs, sound recordings, and species range map: https://xeno-canto.org/species/Accipiter-cooperii

Merlin Bird ID (great app available for Iphones) by The Cornell Lab (Bird ID help for 8,500+ species) https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/

The Cornell Lab (Birds in U.S. and Canada) https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/ (enter common name)

Comprehensive Feather I.D. tools and more: https://foundfeathers.org/resources/

Found Feathers (Worldwide): https://www.fws.gov/lab/featheratlas/idtool.php

Parents are nesting in our backyard. Little fellow was being chased by cats and spent a night indoors until they lost interest and we were sure his wings were okay. Brought him back out to his parents the next morning and he happily hopped back into the bushes.