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Cooper's Hawk sky dancing



While working in the yard on Saturday, I looked up to see a hawk fly over.
Just caught a glimpse of it and couldn't quite figure out what it was. The
most conspicuous thing was a VERY conspicuous white patch formed by the
undertail coverts, which were flared out so far they seemed to wrap around
the bird making it look like a male harrier. The bird had a very long tail
and what seemed to be long wings. The flight (wing beat) was very slow with
lots of soaring. When the first bird passed over it was 100-150 ft. up.
Frustrated that I hadn't had my binoculars with me, I chalked it up as an
unidentified raptor. Several minutes later I looked up to see the same
(presumably) bird along with 2 others circling lazily (emphasixe that)
around over my yard (suburban Charlotte, heavily wooded). Same white
undertail coverts, and same lazy wingbeat, now maybe 300 (or more) ft up.
Wings sometimes held up in a bit of a dihedral. Finally figured out that
they were Cooper's Hawks doing an aerial display (had figured out the last
part already!). I never thought a Cooper's could flap its wings that slowly
and stay airborne!

45 minutes later someone called to ask me about this weird hawk they'd just
seen while out on the Backyard Bird Count. I thought it might be the same
phenomenon, and sure enough, the second sentence out of the caller's mouth
was something about a white rump and I knew we were talking about the same
species and display.

Looked up Cooper's Hawk in Palmer's Handbook of N. A. Birds (Vol 4.) and
found a perfect description of what I'd seen, down to the minute (well at
least hour) details. Palmer cites earlier accounts describing the flight as
nighthawk-like (very apt), and that it most often was seen on warm, sunny
days, around 1000AM. I think my birds were off by 20 minutes, but
everything else matched. This is presumably a courtship display, although
it's been seen often during migration. Palmer doesn't say whether it was
northbound or southbound migration. If it were northbound (heading to the
breeding grounds) it would be little different from warblers giving their
territorial song as they move north.

Just curious to know if anyone else has seen this recently.

Rob Bierregaard
Charlotte


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Well, we made it to the 2000s, now it's less than a year until the end of
the millennium!


http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/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


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