Cooper’s Hawk, Accipiter cooperii

Cooper’s Hawk, Accipiter cooperii, Juvenile. Photograph taken at last light within a residential community of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, March 2021. Identification courtesy of Julie McGhee, Loma Linda, California.

Cooper’s Hawk, Accipiter cooperii, Juvenile. Photograph taken in Oaks Hills, California, June 2020. Photograph and identification courtesy of Julie McGhee, Oak Hills.

Cooper’s Hawk, Accipiter cooperii. Photograph taken in Oaks Hills, California, November 2023. Photograph and identification courtesy of Julie McGhee, Oak Hills.

Cooper’s Hawk, Accipiter cooperii, Juvenile. Photographs taken in the coastal region of Orange County California, June 2020. Photographs and identification courtesy of Dr. Tom Bartol, Carlsbad, California.

Cooper’s Hawk, Accipiter cooperii. Photograph taken within a residential community in Hereford, Arizona, November 2020. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Behrstock, Sierra Vista, Arizona (naturewideimages.com).

Cooper’s Hawk, Accipiter cooperii. Photograph taken in the greater Bahía de los Ángeles area, Baja California, February 2013. Photograph courtesy of George Flicker, Bahía de los Ángeles. Identification courtesy of Mary & George Flicker, Bahía de los Ángeles.

Cooper’s Hawk, Accipiter cooperii, is a member of the Accipitridae Family of Eagles, Hawks, and Kites, which has two hundred and fifty members placed in sixty-nine genera, and one of forty-seven global species of the Accipiter Genus. They are known in Mexico as gavilán de Cooper.

Cooper’s Hawk is mid-sized in stature. The plumages of the sexes are similar; however, they are sexually dimorphic with the females being one-third larger than the males and the males being more brightly colored. Their crown is blue-gray with a lighter colored nape. Their back and upperwing coverts are brown to blue-gray. Their underparts are barred rufous in an aligned pattern. They have short, powerful, rounded wings and a relatively long tail that has three straight alternating bands of dark and light blown or blue-gray and has a white margin. Their iris is orange or red, and their legs are yellow.

Cooper’s Hawk is found in deciduous, mixed, and coniferous forests and deciduous stands of riparian habitat at elevations between 600 m (1,950 feet) and 3,000 m (9,850 feet). They have recently moved into areas of human development including suburban and urban areas. They prey upon medium-sized, shrub- and ground-dwelling birds and mammals such as chipmunks, doves, jays, robins, songbirds, and other rodents. They are inconspicuous and have become the most common backyard raptor across North America.

Cooper’s Hawk can be easily confused with the Bicolored Hawk, Accipter bicolor (found only in Tamaulipas and the Yucatan Peninsula’ dark steaking and barring), the Sharp-shinned Hawk, Accipiter striatus (smaller, less rounded tail, thinner white tail margin), and the Northern Goshawk, Accipter gentilis (larger, less rounded tail, zigzag rectrices).

Cooper’s Hawk is found throughout Mexico with the exception that they are absent from the State of Chiapas and within the Yucatán Peninsula in the States of Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatán.

From a conservation perspective Cooper’s Hawk is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable or expanding, widely distributed populations. Historically their populations have been adversely affected by shooting, trapping, and pesticide contamination.