![]() ![]() Songbird populations become concentrated around bird feeders during winter creating an easy target, much to the dismay of songbird lovers who feed them. Sharp shinned hawks are often seen hunting during winter in town parks or woodlots searching for prey. They tend to focus on catching small birds, usually around chickadee or sparrow sized, as opposed to larger birds like robins, doves or quail. In fact, of all the accipiters in North America, sharp-shinned hawks are the smallest, and this hawk also tends to have the highest percentage of it’s diet being songbirds.Īlmost 100% of the sharp-shinned hawk diet is songbirds. Sharp-shinned Hawks are very similar to Cooper’s Hawks except they’re quite a bit smaller. Young Cooper’s hawks can fly and hunt on their own at 5 weeks old. ![]() This is especially true for Cooper’s Hawks who have big appetites and rely so heavily on songbirds. Most hawks will time their nesting strategy with the availability of easy prey like young songbirds. The best time to spot Cooper’s Hawks hunting is during spring when their young are begging for food. Occasionally smaller prey like frogs, snakes & insects. ![]() Small Rodents (Mice, Chipmunks, Squirrels).Medium Sized songbirds (Robins, Jays, Doves).They fly at powerful speeds to rapidly catch their prey before they know what’s coming. Often found living in suburban neighbourhoods, Cooper’s Hawks can almost become invisible behind dense cover. This would likely be most common in certain geographic locations, or during booms of rodent populations. While they are typically known for going after medium sized songbirds, Coopers hawks do also eat small forest rodents like chipmunks, mice & squirrels. Their primary hunting style is stealth and speed. The Cooper’s Hawk is a medium-sized hawk (similar to crow-sized) that feeds on smaller birds and land mammals.Ĭooper’s Hawks fall into a category of birds called “accipiters”, which are known to specialize in hunting other birds.Īccipiters are uniquely adapted for swooping acrobatically through dense forests at high speeds, making them incredibly dangerous to both ground & aerial animals alike. Read on to find out how different hawks can have a variety of diets depending on where they are from and what their ecosystem has to offer! Accipiters (The Bird Hunting Specialists) What Do Cooper’s Hawks Eat? We’ll even look at some other types of aerial predators that are commonly confused with hawks. This article will break down some different types of hawk you might find out there and look at what they like to eat. So, if you’re wondering how different hawks hunt and what they eat, you’ve come to the right place! It all comes down to the different types of habitats & ecosystems occupied by various hawk species, and the unique adaptations like size, weight, aerodynamics that influence which hunting strategies work best. Some hawks absolutely specialize in eating songbirds, while others are much more likely to be seen catching voles or even insects & amphibians. Most hawks eat a mixture of any prey they can manage to catch. So, what do hawks eat? It depends on the type of hawk. Many beginners think all hawks are pretty much the same, but the reality is there are many different types of hawks around the world, and they almost all have their own unique diet of food preferences.ĭiet is a HUGE driver of both the chosen habitat & the actual hunting behaviors you’ll see from different species while watching hawks. ![]() So one of the big keys to help you really understand the patterns of local hawks is knowing what they eat. Hawks are truly fascinating and magnificent birds to see up close, but they also tend to be significantly more reclusive than most other birds you might be familiar with. Most nature adventurers have probably at some point caught the sight of a hawk flying above an open field or even around your local neighborhood. ![]()
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