Midwest Avian Foundation

Today is National Cooper Day! A “cooper” is someone who crafts the wooden barrels for aging liquors. But it’s also the name of a bird of prey: the Cooper’s hawk!

Cooper’s hawks were named in honor of famed ornithologist William Cooper. They are a medium-sized hawk and are found across the North American continent, from southern Canada all the way down to Mexico.

Though they are classified as a hawk, their hunting techniques look more like falcons: they “course” or chase their prey on the wing, maneuvering around obstacles like miniature fighter jets. Birds make up the bulk of their diet, though they will also hunt lizards and small mammals.

Adults are either blue- or brown-gray over most of their bodies, a cap of darker feathers. Their undersides are a pale cream with speckles of reddish-brown. The tails are gray and black banded, with white tips. Juveniles tend to be more brownish overall and can be mistaken at first glance for a red tailed hawk.

Their wings can appear much shorter than other hawks’, but it is this that enables them to perform their acrobatic maneuvers in the hunt.

Cooper’s hawks are not often seen by the casual observer, as they prefer to perch high in trees rather than out in the open. But if you have a bird feeder, you have probably seen one of these nimble birds stopping by to pick up a snack – and I don’t mean the suet or seeds. These birds like to snack on the songbirds that are at your feeder.

While I’m sure it’s jarring to watch a hawk swoop down and sn**ch up an unsuspecting songbird, this is simply part of the circle of life. If you find a Cooper’s hawk treating your backyard feeder as a local Golden Corral, removing the feeder for a week or two will convince the Cooper’s to move on; then you can put the feeder back out.

It doesn't seem like a dollar goes as far as it used to. 🤷‍♀️

If a person donated $1 to us, we could probably buy a single mouse for our birds. 🐀

But what would happen if a lot of people donated $1? 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️🙋🙋‍♀️

The first Monday in every month is One$-Day Monday: donate one dollar to Midwest Avian Foundation and challenge your friends and family to also donate one dollar! How far can this dollar-donation go? How many dollars can we raise?

Donations will go towards food and care for our non-releasable educational birds.

Click here to donate: https://givebutter.com/ETwOLw

OR

Venmo
Cash App $MidwestAvian
Text MONDAY to 53-555

One$-Day-Monday By Midwest Avian Foundation