Hatchlings weigh around 28 g (0.99 oz) and are covered in white natal down with blue-gray eyes. Incubation lasts for 34-36 days mainly by the female, though the male may substitute for 10-30 minutes after he brings his mate food. The female lays 3 to 5 pale sky-blue eggs.

Nests are often located up to 20 m (66 ft) above the ground in the main fork or horizontal branch close to the trunk. They build a bulky platform nest, usually in conifers or in broad-leafed trees. Cooper's hawks breed once per year and produce one brood. Males perform sky dances in which their wings are raised high over back in a wide arch with slow, rhythmic flapping, with exaggerated down strokes. During this time pairs frequently high circle together. Breeding may begin as early as February in the southern part of the range, but, for the most part, the breeding season is from April to July. However, generally, Cooper's hawks are silent outside the breeding season.Ĭooper's hawks usually are considered monogamous and form pair bonds. Females have what is often thought of as their own hunger cry, 'whaaaa', heard especially in poorer food areas when the male appears. The initial call of the young is a 'cheep' or 'chirrp'. When coming with food to the nest or while displaying during courtship, the male may let out a 'kik' call. This call may be translated as 'keh-keh-keh…', males tending to have a higher-pitched, less raspy, and faster-paced voice than females. The typical call of Cooper's hawks is a harsh, cackling yelp. They may also chase prey into the cover or from bush to bush. Many birds are caught when they fly around a tree where Cooper's hawk is inconspicuously perched. Sometimes, they will engage in tandem hunts with one hawk dashing around after the prey while another one waits on the other side of a tree trunk or wooded thicket. During hunts, Cooper's hawks may suddenly alight when detecting an available mammal. If birds become aware of them, hawks will tend to quickly gain height in hopes of intercepting some prey. If they see birds when flying, hunting hawks do not fly directly to them but instead, circle around to available trees and bushes often perching for a few moments before launching their attack. Cooper's hawks are mainly arboreal but may come to walk on the ground to gather nesting materials as well as to hunt. Daylight hours are spent soaring, hunting, perching, preening, and sunning. They are diurnal and at night take to conifers to roost, generally sleeping with their heads tucked in. They have also adapted to urbanized areas and can even nest in many cities.Ĭooper's hawks are generally solitary birds apart from breeding and rare aggregations during migration. In Central America, Cooper's hawks can occur in the cloud forests and treeless montane grassland. Their wintering habitats include open woods, parkland, and scrub areas. They prefer to breed in open woodlands, including small woodlots, riparian woodlands in dry country, pinyon woodlands, farmlands, and floodplains. They can also be found in forested mountainous regions, especially foothills and in conifer forests, including the extreme southern part of the taiga. These birds inhabit various types of temperate deciduous forests and mixed forests. Cooper's hawks largely migrate out of nearly all of their range in southern Canada as well as cooler parts of the Pacific Northwest, essentially all of Montana and northern parts of surrounding states, the Dakotas, the northern parts of the Great Lake states, northern New York and much of New England. They tend to be most migratory in the north and largely to partially sedentary elsewhere.

Montane grasslands and shrublands, Taiga, Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest, Temperate coniferous forest, Tropical dry forest, Tropical moist forestsĬooper's hawks are native to North America and found from Southern Canada to Northern Mexico.

Pa hawk sounds at night