Strange behavior (1 Viewer)

Please pardon the poor quality of these photos. This hawk (coopers hawk?) has been coming around lately and my guess is that it's a young coopers hawk but it sits on the railing of the deck and continually caws(?) while flying from one railing to another. It has a very distinct cat's meow to it's call and has woken me up a couple of times. It just sits there "screaming". The first time I saw it, it was sitting on the deck and I thought it was wounded because it had its wings stretched out in a tent-like shape. Then I saw what looked like a dead sparrow near its feet.

Please confirm the identity, whether it's a young/immature bird and why this strange behavior.

Certainly an immature Cooper's - juvenile plumage is distinct from adult (most obviously, breast pattern and color).

Perching near a lawn where sparrows might be found isn't so unusual, but I don't know what to make of the constant calling. Also, changing your perch every few minutes is not good hunting tactics (unless you've been seen by your quarry), so I'm thinking this youngster still has plenty to learn.

Agree, juvenile Cooper's hawk.

The spread wing posture described, sounds as though the Cooper's was "mantling" its prey, the sparrow. That behavior mask the prey from competition that might be close by and opportunistically swoop down and steal away with an easy meal. The article in the link below notes an incident with juvenile sibling Cooper's. One had taken a meal, and siblings closed in. At one point, close enough for physical contact and a goodly amount of vocalizations. It's speculation, but perhaps another Cooper's is close by, and unseen by people. But, your friend knows about it, and is issuing a warning, and also protecting own interest by mantling.

Cooper's Hawk Family

It is an immature accipiter and based on your description of it's call I think it is a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Probably a female based on it's size.

Below are quotes about the differences between the call of a Cooper's Hawk and a Sharps-shinned Hawk from Brian K. Wheeler's RAPTORS of Western North America. Perhaps you can tell if either one of the descriptions corresponds with what you heard?

Wheeler describes a Cooper's Hawk call as a "Very nasal kek-kek-kek when alarmed and agitated....... The nasal quality of all vocalizations is readily separable from the calls of Sharp-shinned Hawks and Northern Goshawks." See page 183 of his western edition of Raptors of North America.

He describes the call of a Sharp-shinned Hawk at page 167 as follows: "When very agitated, a high-pitched rapid kee-kee-kee or soft, high-pitched kyew, kyew, kyew; usually a three-note call but can be four or more notes in a series. .................. Voice is easily separable from nasal call of Cooper's Hawks."

Bob

Definitely Coopers, by the shape of the tail tip alone. It's probably only just come to the end of the period where it is being fed entirely by its parents and is a bit confused as to whether it should hunt for itself or keep calling, in hope that one of its parents will come and feed it. Typical kid

Chris

I'm still not convinced that it is a Cooper's Hawk. I would like to see what the OP has to say about Wheeler's comments on the vocalization of Cooper's and Sharp-shins first.

Wheeler comments at page 170 in SIMILAR SPECIES: (1) Cooper's Hawks, males; "On underside of tail, outer rectrices are sequentially shorter than inner ones: use caution when comparing very rounded type tail of female Sharp-shinned Hawks as they can be very like Cooper's Hawks. White terminal band on tail is wide in the fall but may mostly be worn off by spring." (The underlining is my emphasis--the rest is an exact quote from the book.)

Meanwhile here is a link showing a number of Sharp-shinned Hawks perched in similar places. Most of them appear to be mature birds.

http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/raptors/Sharpshinned.html

The table at the bottom showing their comparative sizes and weights is interesting. The male Cooper's Hawk is a much more bulky bird than the Female Sharp-shin is.

Bob

Peterson describes the cooper's as "mewing", but rather than going by descriptions, perhaps the OP can compare these:

http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Accipiter-striatus

http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Accipiter-cooperii