Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Cooper Hawk Family!!


Photos from John Mellin an IEUA staff member captured a rare moment last week of a Cooper Hawk Family outside the Agency's main headquarters just north of the Chino Creek Park.

Nest Description
Males typically build the nest over a period of about two weeks, with just the slightest help from the female. Nests are piles of sticks roughly 27 inches in diameter and 6-17 inches high with a cup-shaped depression in the middle, 8 inches across and 4 inches deep. The cup is lined with bark flakes and, sometimes, green twigs.
Nesting Placement
Cooper’s Hawks build nests in pines, oaks, Douglas-firs, beeches, spruces, and other tree species, often on flat ground rather than hillsides, and in dense woods. Nests are typically 25-50 feet high, often about two-thirds of the way up the tree in a crotch or on a horizontal branch.

Nesting Facts
Clutch Size
2–6 eggs
Number of Broods
1 broods
Egg Length
1.7–2 in
4.4–5.1 cm
Egg Width
1.4–1.6 in
3.5–4 cm
Incubation Period
30–36 days
Nestling Period
27–34 days
Egg Description
Pale blue to bluish white.
Condition at Hatching
Covered in white down and weighing just 28 grams or 1 ounce, but able to crawl around nest.
Information from allaboutbirds.org