Cooper's Hawks 5

We have a pair of immature Cooper's hawks now at the wildlife rescue center where I've been volunteering. This past Friday my last Friday there for the season, and I spent much of it doing repair work, including on the door to their enclosure.

Cooper's hawks are one of three birds, along with the larger red-tailed and smaller sharp-shinned hawks, once referred to as 'chicken hawks.' They were often hunted mercilessly over the belief that they preyed on livestock, though now it has been shown that losses to of livestock to hawks is minimal. They also suffered greatly from pesticides. They've rebounded since, though loss of habitat does trouble them.

These are skittish, territorial birds, and as such were constantly watching me and flitting about. I tried to work swiftly and with as little motion or noise as possible, so as not to stress them out too greatly.

Here are a quick pair of videos taken the same day:

Swinging Cooper's Hawks 1
Swinging Cooper's Hawks 2