Today I found a Cooper's Hawk nest with nestlings in it and I was very surprised today to find an immature Cooper's Hawk defending the nest. I found the following on the Birds of North America online site: "Usually 2 yr but year-old immatures reported as 6% to 22% of breeding females." I was unaware that less than adult accipiters were able to breed before this. In checking some references it appears that the immature female Cooper's is in the transition from juvenal to Basic plumage. She had a need for more space from humans than I had previously experienced with nesting Cooper's Hawk and flew at me several times (as I was trying to leave) close enough I felt the need to duck. I left the area and she settled down.
I got one good photo of the nest with nestlings (one shows nicely but looks like more than one) and the head of the immature female behind the nestling (didn't see it until I uploaded photos and cropped it) and one less good photo that of the immature female that I have uploaded to my Birds and Nature blog.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAAUvckrFekV3kVju8AGu%3D9iv7d%2BTXY23xBH699CNNm9vW1QsYQ%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
No comments:
Post a Comment