Usually when I see a hawk being chased in the air it is by an
unidentifiable small bird. Recently I saw what was perhaps a Red-Tail
being harassed by a Cooper's. Isn't the Cooper's the smaller hawk with
the long tail?

Davej <galt... at (no spam) hotmail.com> wrote:
Usually when I see a hawk being chased in the air it is by an
unidentifiable small bird. Recently I saw what was perhaps a Red-Tail
being harassed by a Cooper's. Isn't the Cooper's the smaller hawk with
the long tail?

It's the one I see most often. Females are roughly crow-sized, males
jay-ized. The Coop probably had a nest nearby.

We have a pair of Cooper's that work our backyard every few days. They
keep the dove population under control, rarely taking anything else.
It's pretty obvious when they're around: it gets REAL quiet except for
robin and squirrel alarm calls, and any songbird caught in the open
freezes in place.