Guy David, an active birder and Discovery Center Bird Club member, was recently hiking in Honeybee Canyon, Arizona. He shared a few photos from his hike – highlighting some Cooper’s Hawk activity. He knows I'm a fan of raptors and specifically Cooper's Hawks, as my 7-year old happens to be named after one!
Cooper’s Hawks are a bird we see in Wisconsin in the spring, summer and fall; but is one we seldom see in the winter. They migrate south and their winter range is from southern Wisconsin to Central America. As Guy said in his email to me, “I’ll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about what these birds were up to.”
After I asked Guy for permission to post the pictures, he shared a bit more…
We first saw the male when it flushed ahead of us and circled behind us and landed in a tree. So we backtracked to get a better look at the male when we saw the female. She was busy tearing flesh from some prey that looked to us like part of the hindquarters of a rabbit. The male moved around in close proximity to her and mounted her… while she just tried to keep on eating! After he dismounted, they looked at us as if to say “Did you see that?” Eventually the male flew off while the female kept on working on the prey.
All photos credited to Guy David
Article compiled by Discovery Center Executive Director, Sarah Johnson
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