page_title: Cooper's hawk
section_title: Mammals
hierarchical_section_title: Cooper's hawk / Dietary biology / Mammals
caption_attribution_description: English: This image was uploaded as part of Wiki Science Competition 2017. English: A Juvenile Cooper's Hawk with its catch This image was uploaded as part of Wiki Science Competition 2017.
context_page_description: Cooper's hawk is a medium-sized hawk native to the North American continent and found from southern Canada to Mexico. This species is a member of the genus Accipiter, sometimes referred to as true hawks, which are famously agile, relatively small hawks common to wooded habitats around the world and also the most diverse of all diurnal raptor genera. As in many birds of prey, the male is smaller than the female. The birds found east of the Mississippi River tend to be larger on average than the birds found to the west. It is easily confused with the smaller but similar Sharp-shinned hawk.
  The species was named in 1828 by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in honor of his friend and fellow ornithologist, William Cooper. Other common names for the Cooper's hawk include: big blue darter, chicken hawk, flying cross, hen hawk, quail hawk, striker, and swift hawk. Many of the names applied to the Cooper's hawks refer to their ability to hunt large and evasive prey using extremely well-developed agility. This species primarily hunts small-to-medium sized birds, but will also commonly take small mammals and sometimes reptiles.
context_section_description: A lower diversity of species and lower overall numbers of mammals are taken relative to bird prey but mammalian prey can be locally important. Chipmunks are often regularly hunted in various regions, though only about one-third of North American chipmunks are known in the prey spectrum. High balances of the relatively large 96 g (3.4 oz) eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus) were found in studies from New York, Michigan and Wisconsin. The eastern chipmunk appeared to dominate the foods of Cooper's hawks in the Green Ridge State Forest in Maryland, at 49.1% of 57 prey items and mammals altogether made up an exceptional 66.9% of the foods. In the western United States, fewer chipmunks are identifiable but such prey is fairly commonly detected. High balances of chipmunks were found in food studies from Oregon, especially in eastern Oregon where chipmunks (unidentified to species) were the leading prey type, at 22.5% of 120 prey items. The most common chipmunk prey in Oregon is probably the 89.3 g (3.15 oz) Townsend's chipmunk (Neotamias townsendii) but the Cooper's hawks may take chipmunks down to the size of the 48 g (1.7 oz) least chipmunk (Neotamias minimus). Mammals distantly related to chipmunks, such as ground squirrels (including antelope squirrels) can be taken in locally high volume. Golden-mantled ground squirrels (Callospermophilus lateralis) were the second most important prey in eastern Oregon at 16.6%. Thirteen-lined ground squirrels (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus) were the second most common prey species in a study from Wisconsin and also important in the diet in North Dakota (where they were the most significant contributor of biomass, constituting 23.4%). Golden-mantled and thirteen-lined ground squirrels are fairly small for ground squirrels, the earlier averaging 166 g (5.9 oz), the latter of similar size. A few larger ground squirrels may be hunted, such as California ground squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi) and rock squirrels (Otospermophilus variegatus), both averaging over 600 g (1.3 lb) in adults, albeit infrequently. Tree squirrels are widely taken but secondary prey for Cooper's hawks. The smallish, roughly 200 g (7.1 oz) American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) are not infrequent prey in northerly locations. About 36 red squirrels were recorded in the foods of Cooper's hawk in Ithaca, New York and these squirrels appear to have specific alarm calls that are provoked by these hawks, however the rate of predation by Cooper's appears to be low relative to other predators overall. Reported when taking red squirrels, male Cooper's hawks, being relatively small, may tear the prey into pieces that can be transported by them to the nest. Numerous other tree squirrels are taken occasionally by Cooper's hawks. Sizes of tree squirrels taken by Cooper's hawks were studied in Missouri. Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) were taken of up to adult size but fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) were only taken as juveniles, as the adults, sometimes scaling up to 1,350 g (2.98 lb), were apparently too formidable for the Cooper's. The estimated weights of both the gray and fox squirrels taken in Missouri was 450 g (16 oz), with the gray contributing 10.9% of the biomass.
  About 20 non-sciurid rodent species may be taken by Coopers hawks but are rarely significant in the foods. Both American species of flying squirrels, woodrats, commoner Peromyscus mice, some species of vole and lemming, cotton rats, jumping mice, kangaroo rats and non-native rodents may all be prey occasionally, although most species of these are fairly nocturnal and thus of limited access. Few of these types of rodents are taken frequently enough to warrant much individual mention. Unidentified woodrats, at a mean estimated mass of 256.6 g (9.05 oz) were significant to the biomass of Cooper's hawks in northwestern Oregon. In North Dakota, Peromyscus mice made up an unusually high 13.5% of the foods. In the city of Burnaby, when bird feeders began to attract black rats (Rattus rattus), Cooper's hawk's came to locally take significant numbers
caption: A tree squirrel is an ample meal for a juvenile Cooper's hawk.
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