Astur cooperii
Order Accipitriformes
Family Accipitridae
Subfamily Accipitrinae
Other names: Chicken hawk
♂ Adult male.— Upper parts dark gray, bluish-gray in strong light; top of head blackish; tail crossed by several blackish bands; under parts white, closely barred with reddish-brown; tail rounded.
♀ Adult female.— Duller than the male.
Immature.— Upper parts dusky brown; lower parts white, striped with brown, the sides barred with the same.
Nest, in high trees, often a deserted crow’s nest.
Eggs, bluish-white, rarely spotted with pale brownish.
The Cooper’s Hawk, called Chicken Hawk by the farmers, is a not uncommon summer resident throughout southern and central New England and the lower Hudson Valley; it occurs sparingly on the uplands of central New England, but is absent from the deep forests of the Canadian Zone. It is a rare winter resident in the vicinity of New York city. The Cooper’s Hawk is bold, strong, and swift, and destroys more poultry and wild birds than any other hawk. When the nesting-site is approached, the birds utter cries like “a Flicker’s laugh or a tree-toad’s trill magnified” (F. H. Allen).
The male is hard to distinguish from a female Sharp-shinned Hawk, but the female is considerably larger. Her long tail and manner of flight ought easily to distinguish her from the other common large hawks, the Red-shouldered and the Marsh Hawk. The Red-shouldered Hawk soars or circles high in air, with a cut of wings and tail like that of the Red-tailed Hawk; the Marsh Hawk glides low over meadows and marshes, and sooner or later shows the large white spot at the base of the tail. The Cooper’s Hawk either flies fairly high, the powerful wing-strokes alternating with periods of gliding, during which the length of tail is evident, or, when hunting, flies rapidly over the tops of bushes and between the trees. When a Cooper’s Hawk perches, the tail projects well below the wings, and is crossed by blackish bands. The breast is either finely barred with reddish-brown, or streaked with blackish or reddish-brown.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)