Épervier de Cooper - Accipiter cooperii
Cooper's Hawk

Épervier de Cooper - Accipiter cooperii

Adult male Cooper’s Hawk mantling its prey. “Mantling” is the word given for the way in which birds of prey often cover their prey with their wings, either spreading them out, or cupping them around the prey, apparently to prevent competitors from seeing what they have! Or at least, that is the theory. I have shown a scene I have seen often in my own back yard, a Cooper’s Hawk, in the snow, that has just captured a Mourning Dove. You can see the tail of the dove under the wing of the bird. Mourning doves were rare in my region (southern Ontario) in winter when I was young, but now they are very common, and they seem to be a favourite prey of the crow-sized Cooper’s Hawk, a species that ranges across North America and is partly migratory.

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