Falconry: Cooper's hawks and the Coyote principle

[@paisley1134]

In SW Michigan here, 15 mins ago a huge Coopers Hawk just landed in my back yard, tried to snatch a squirrel. This thing was huge!!! I’m shocked because I’ve seen Hawks out back before, it’s woodsy but not this specked one. The neighbor has a little chawahwa they let run in their back yard. This Hawk was watching from a tree and absolutely on the hunt. I ran over and told her.

[@ka0spm]

An observation from a birder standpoint. We have coopers in our suburban neighborhood in SW Missouri. We had one nest nearby and 1 chick made it. Apparently the weening process is happening, the young one has been all bent out of shape calling and flying all around. This happen today. I have seen the adult a couple of times but mostly the young one. Both the adult and baby are bigger than an average crow. I have a very tall antenna on my garage roof and its a favorite roost for hunting our feeders. What a gift to get to see them up close.

[@iriefauna2320]

Love how you tied that together this was great ! New subscriber for sure!

[@codycox2685]

Get well soon Ben.

[@chimpz_ahoy1502]

I have been watching this channel for years and I just wanted to share my excitement that I have been taken in as an apprentice by my falconry "mentor", the journey has just begun!

[@czserad]

My first season too! It’s a blast!!!!

[@chimpz_ahoy1502]

@@czserad I like the osprey pfp!

[@czserad]

@@chimpz_ahoy1502 thank you! Made it myself! Love yours too, bird pfps are the best!

[@Mikheno]

I've been involved with hawks, falcons & falconry since ~1965. I had no idea that Coopers and Goshawks ever interbred. All my experience told me that a goshawk would kill and eat every Coopers hawk it could catch. Those examples you showed were truly alien looking hawks.

[@agquagwisvquwgavwj]

Ben, been loving your channel it’s extremely helpful. I’m looking to find a sharp shinned nest this season and have been devouring all the sharpie content I can find to prepare myself. Any other channels or resources you recommend? I’m in CA Thanks, Mac

[@Sunsaintsandwaves]

Neat concept!

[@sampfotenhauer536]

That makes a lot of sense. The biggest coops I’ve ever seen are in a goshawk-free slice of Indiana. These suckers would tussle with a grown Brahma rooster of mine.

[@benwoodrufffalconry]

That’s really cool. I have heard that some of the eastern coops are insanely large. Would be incredible to fly one

[@peterwaksman9179]

Saw some nesting Goshawks in Sudbury MA, shorter and stouter than a female Cooper's hawk, also from there. Your "coyote" principal might be operating on the Goshawks, as well.

[@remyogun8270]

Hey Ben, could you do a video on Short-Tailed Hawks?

[@mbjdno779]

I live in South Eastern PA. I know Goshawks nest a few hundred miles North of me. The Coopers that I see are quite a bit larger then the ones I see in your videos. It would be interesting to catch a weigh them to get a good weight range for both sexs, then compare them to other population in the U.S.A.

[@matwho2471]

Great information as always... Keep it up Ben!

[@CaptainH8322]

Totally agree with this - some of the biggest coopers I’ve seen have been in CT, and so far I’ve only ever heard of 2 pairs of goshawks breeding here, and basically only 1 or 2 pass through

[@darlebalfoort8705]

Don’t leave out Red-tail hawks in New York. We don’t just have accipiters. Our north Eastern coyotes test out as wolf coyote hybrids, able to take adult deer.

[@BeneathTheGold]

Very interesting Ben as always. I would love to hear a bit more about these naturally occurring coopers hawk x goshawk hybrids

[@dericfranks9346]

very interesting. I live In North Central Arkansas and see tons of coopers Hawks. I have noticed that our coops are quite large. Large enough that when out trapping Redtails sometimes at a distance we can mistake a large coop for a small redtail till we get close to it. I have a very large coop that stays up where i deer hunt. I have a corn feeder out where squirrels frequent. I have seen this coop take a gray squirrel while sitting in my stand and tried to take a very large fox squirrel . Just some of my experience here in Arkansas I thought id share.

[@hilarious3327]

Hallelujah thank god a proper site where the birds of prey get to fly 💕

[@anthonycapuano8554]

So if you trap a Cooper's x gos hybrid, what do you have, especially if you don't have a tag for a gos? 😉

[@viveviveka2651]

The omnivore principle seems similar to the coyote principle.

[@thecggames]

Would this also apply to Red-Tailed Hawks? I've heard they are larger in the Eastern US vs the West. Is there another reason why they are larger vs Coops or is it related?

[@benwoodrufffalconry]

I was wondering that as well. I have definitely seen documentation that red tails back east are much larger. But I wonder if there is a different reason. I know there is a lot more squirrel hunting back east even with wild birds. And our western birds are mostly hunting, smaller field rodents, such as voles, so maybe tackling larger more dangerous prey such as tree squirrels has favored larger, red tails. But I definitely want to do some thinking and research on that and come up with some other hypothesis.

[@shae899]

Slight sidebar, would the presence of other large, less related predators NOT cause this? The resident coopers here in mid Michigan come from tiny to huge (for around here anyway. I would have to show someone pictures to estimate a small male and "large" female's size.). She shares her territory with a pair of retails, a winter visiting red shouldered, a pair of harriers, and a pair of great horned owls. I assume this is typical around here, as I see cooper's and red tails in the same places all over in my area. We also have at least one pair of goshawks in the "local/this side of town" area, a few pairs of peregrines, and a good number of kestrels and merlins with an occasional rate of sharpies. Is the coyote principle only capable of adapting to very similar species? Sharpies and Goshawks are both "rare" as the rate of species occurrence goes here. Am I seeing such size difference in cooper's because they are punching both up AND down in the absence of the other two? Are the males SO small to stay out of competition with the large females?

[@thecggames]

@@shae899 I'm inclined to agree about other predator populations playing a role. I do think what Ben mentioned is a factor (ie. the available prey base might naturally select different traits). However, at least in the Mid-West, we're always marveling about how much game the West has (boatload of rabbits, jacks, quail, etc) in comparison to us. I'd be inclined to assume Jacks in the West would produce a larger RT population, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I grew up in CA and can say for sure that the number of predators on that side of the US far exceeds what I've seen on the eastern half of the country. Bears, Mountain Lion, Coyotes, etc always appeared to be more numerous. It's quite possible that birds of prey are also selecting genetics based on the competition of other predator types.

[@charlie21gunner87]

@@benwoodrufffalconry I have a beautiful picture of a (Coopers/Sharp shinned?) in Michigan, not sure how to share it but it was definitely not small...

[@richardsandoval2899]

No

[@remyogun8270]

Coyote principle, could be called the "Leopard" principle in the old world, and maybe there's even conceptually a "Fisher" Principle, with Martens and Wolverines🧐🤔

[@remyogun8270]

Cooper's Hawks are to Goshawks, as Mako Sharks are to Great Whites...