Cooper’s Hawks in our Woods

The Cooper’s Hawks nested in our woods again this year. They built their nest high up in one of the tall spruce trees (though it was probably the male who did most of the work.)

The Hawks are stealthy and quiet. We don’t even know they are around until the baby birds have fledged. Then the parents get very peevish if we venture too close to their home base.

The two ‘youngsters’ (pictured below) are still being fed by the adults. They are always hungry. Their calls for food are almost non stop all day long. The parents  feed them medium-sized birds and small mammals.

Cooper’s Hawks are very agile, powerful birds that pursue prey in the forest. They are very adept at threading their way through tree branches at top speed.

Both birds are venturing out further and further and are becoming very good fliers.

In a few months they will head for warmer climates. They are generally short to medium distance migrants which means they might winter somewhere in the central United States.

The upside to having hawks as summer residents is that they keep the rodent population in check. The downside is that we don’t see many mid-sized birds in our woods… except a family of crows that nested in our woods too. I don’t like crows very much. They are so noisy and their ‘caw, caw, caw’ is not a pleasant sound.

Here is my other story about a family of Cooper’s Hawks – Cooper’s Hawk near Calgary, Alberta.