[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Coopers imitating harriers



I have also had this experience with Cooper's Hawks here at Slick Rock.  I
feel better knowing that the wrap-around white undertail coverts have been
temporarily taken as a white rump by at least one other birder.


At 03:51 PM 4/17/01 -0400, R O Bierregaard Jr wrote:
>Once again, the Cooper's Hawks are doing an interesting display that 
>makes them look most un-Cooper's Hawkish. An eminent local student of 
>birds (who will remain nameless) was fooled into thinking he had seen 
>Harriers upon looking up and seeing a pair of birds in very slow, 
>floppy flight--they look almost like big moths or butterflies (this 
>is how it's described in Bent's Life History account for 
>Coopers)--with white rump patches. The white rump patch is actually 
>the undertail coverts which are flared out so far as to sort of wrap 
>around the base of the tail and makes it look like a white rump patch.
>
>Keep your eyes open for this display, which may or may not be 
>associated with nesting territories. It probably is, but has been 
>seen from birds on migration. But then we hear birds on migration 
>giving their territorial song, so this really wouldn't be that 
>different.
>
>Rob Bierregaard
>-- 
>
>Rob Bierregaard
>
>**********************************************************
>
>				Phones: 704 333 2405
>Biology Department			704 547 3499
>UNC-Charlotte			Faxes:	704 333 2404
>9201 University City Blvd.		704 547 3128
>Charlotte NC 28223-0001		rbierreg@email.uncc.edu
>
>	http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/bierregaard/
>**********************************************************
>
Nancy Iha
niha@citcom.net
at Slick Rock above 3000'
Brevard, NC