Backyard and Beyond

An Accipter presents a distinctive silhouette. With a longer tail and a narrower body than a Buteo (like a Red-tailed Hawk), they jump out at you.
This one allowed me to get on the right side of the sun.
Like yesterday’s specimen, this is an adult Cooper’s. (See here and here for a recent immature bird) Probably male, since it seemed small. The sexual dimorphism among Cooper’s is extreme. The female is much larger.

Another day, another adult Coop. Or is it the same one? I’m used to seeing more immatures than adults in Brooklyn. Second year plumage starts getting away from the juvenile look, but it takes ’til the third year to get the full slate blue back, russet-rowed front. The eyes get oranger/redder with age, too.

Renown as bird-hunters, they will also eat whatever they can get their talons on, including mammals, reptiles, insects. They often hang out in thick cover, which around here translates as yews. Last Sunday, then I saw the adult pictured above in the first three images, I also came upon a younger Cooper’s. This one seemed rather larger, hence female, but then the bird was less when six feet away from me before I saw it. Nuthatches wailing incessantly were why I looked closer. Surprisingly, the first thing that flew out from under the yew was an American Woodcock. Then came the Cooper’s in the cinnamon-bellied timberdoodle’s wake.