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Small and medium birds
- Small and medium birds are the preferred prey of Cooper’s hawks. Additionally, Cooper’s hawks may supplement this diet with small mammals, reptiles, and occasionally amphibians, fish and insects.
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With their smaller lookalike, the Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper’s Hawks make for famously tricky identifications. Both species are sometimes unwanted guests at bird feeders, looking for an easy meal (but not one of sunflower seeds).
Many studies have contrasted the diet of Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawk in other areas as well, with the sharp-shinned hawk much more regularly selecting birds weighing under about 28 g (0.99 oz), a fair amount overlap in birds of 28 to 40 g (0.99 to 1.41 oz) and 40 to 75 g (1.4 to 2.6 oz) weight classes but birds over this weight range are ...
- Population Threats
- Population Number
- Ecological Niche
The main threats to Cooper's hawks include shooting, pollutants, and the loss of habitat. Lead poisoning can sometimes threaten these birds, through lead bullets left in the dead or injured game. Most urban-related mortality for Cooper's hawks is likely to be collisions with manmade objects. These are mostly wire strikes (with or without resulting ...
According to the What Bird resource, the total population size of Cooper’s hawk is between 100,000 and 1,000,000 individuals. According to the All About Birds resource, the total breeding population size of the species is 700,000 birds. Overall, currently, Cooper’s hawks are classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, and their numbers t...
Generally, Cooper's hawks hunt the locally common birds and probably control their populations (such as the more numerous icterids and corvids) that may without the influence of natural predation risk overpopulation and potential harm to ecosystems.
Diet. Mostly birds and small mammals. Feeds mainly on medium-sized birds, in the size range of robins, jays, flickers, also on larger and smaller birds. Also eats many small mammals, such as chipmunks, tree squirrels, ground squirrels, mice, bats. Sometimes eats reptiles, insects.
Cooper’s Hawks mainly eat birds. Small birds are safer around Cooper’s Hawks than medium-sized birds: studies list European Starlings, Mourning Doves, and Rock Pigeons as common targets along with American Robins, several kinds of jays, Northern Flicker, and quail, pheasants, grouse, and chickens.
What they eat. The Cooper's Hawk hunts a variety of prey and like most predators is highly opportunistic, meaning it will take a meal anyplace it can get it. Cooper's Hawks are primarily bird hunters and have been known to hang around backyard bird feeders, where songbirds gather in tempting numbers.
