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A pair of Cooper's hawks has been nesting in my neighborhood. I'm taking notes :) Here are a few shots of the male refueling himself in between trips to supply the nest.
[taxonomy:binomial=accipiter cooperii]
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It's late June, and the brood of four [edit: five] young Cooper's Hawks is growing flight feathers and consuming a lot of prey.
[taxonomy:binomial=accipiter cooperii]
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The five young Cooper's Hawks are venturing out from their nest, flying short distances within their tree.
A neighbor said one had been on the ground yesterday evening, trying hard to get back up to the nest. No easy feat, that: the lowest branches are more than 8 feet above ground level.
[taxonomy:binomial=accipiter cooperii]
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One of the adults looks on while the young Cooper's Hawks practice maneuvering.
Watching them negotiate power lines and tree branches, it's easy to see why so many of these birds end up with broken bones. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says 23% of skeletons studied showed signs of healed fractures. Alice, now a permanent resident at New Mexico Wildlife Center, arrived as a juvenile in 2006 with two broken wings; the fractures didn't heal well enough for her to be able to be released.
These youngsters have light blue eyes that should turn yellow as they get older. I don't know how long it takes, but eventually they should have the same intense orange-red eye color as their parents.
[taxonomy:binomial=accipiter cooperii]
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/coopers_hawk/id
http://thewildlifecenter.org
