An immature – yellow eyes & brown streaking – Cooper’s Hawk in our urban, deep inside-the-perimeter of Atlanta yard. This is increasingly common urban occurrence.
Cooper’s Hawks are overall short to medium distance migrants. But there is growing evidence that during dispersal if a young adult emigrates to an urban setting they tend to stay & become a resident. This appears to be because of an abundance of food sources they can exploit – bird feeders & increasingly rewilded yards that are bird & small rodent friendly.
Extremely proficient hunters, Coops are more than happy to provide a culling & balancing environmental service.
As a result they have recovered remarkedly from the DDT devastation in the 1950-1960s. Coops were listed as imperiled or species of Special Concern 15 U.S. states by the mid-1980s. No states list them today.
