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06172016 Cooper's Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
assessment
treatment
recovering
healthy
Admission Date:
06/17/2016
Cause of Admission:
The nest was blown down.
UPDATE: I picked up a Cooper's Hawk at Animal Care and Control on July 16th of 2016 that was picked up by an offier in the vicinity of Lahmeyer Rd. and Trier Rd. When he was brought to Dr. Funnell, she thought he might have a back injury because he was not moving his tail. He was also thin. Dr. Funnell gave him anti-inflammatory medicine and a pain reliever and let him rest. He recovered and was able to move his tail and was eating well. A Cooper's Hawk is an Accipiter , meaning they use their tails like a rudder to maneuver through the trees to catch their prey, so it was essential that he was able to use his tail properly before he was released.
06172016-COHA
This little guy was the lucky one: his nest was blown down and the other three in the nest died. He was in good shape- alert and excellent weight. We believe it is a Cooper's Hawk. But at this age, we have been known to make mistakes in identification! Red-shouldered Hawks and Broadwinged Hawks look very similar at this age. Stay tuned to see if we identified him correctly!
You can see in the photos that he is mostly a white ball of down. He is just beginning to get feathers on his back and tail. He will be housed with another supposed Cooper's Hawk that is fortunately the same age. They are a lot of work at this age as they need to have all their food cut up in small pieces and feed many times a day. We also go to great measures to not imprint the babies. They need to know they are Hawks and not humans! An imprinted bird cannot be released back into the wild. We expect this little guy to make it back into the wild late in the summer or early fall.
I took him to the corner of Lahmeyer Rd. and Trier Rd. When I opened the box to release him, he flew like a champ, changing directions, gaining altitude, and flying into a tree!
06172016-COHA
Yes, he is a Cooper's Hawk! This guy is doing great! He is fully grown and will soon be tested to see if he can catch live prey. We hope to release him in the near future!
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