Early in 2013 the Saskatchewan Science Centre and Wascana Centre identified a Cooper's Hawk nest in Wascana Park. With financial support from TD Friends of the Environment a live-streaming webcam was installed. The Cooper's Hawk laid 5 eggs - and they've all hatched! Stay tuned as these baby birds grow and learn to fly.

http://www.livestream.com/coopershawkwebcam

During a feeding session today, Mama Hawk fed four of her five babies. The fifth one, probably the smallest and last to hatch, was not responsive and did not get into feeding position, although it did raise its head to peer out of the nest. The nestlings have already feathered out quite a bit and are flapping their wings. The youngest two of the chicks are still mostly white, with only a few dark feathers showing.

P.S. In a later feeding, all five chicks were active and accepting every morsel they could get.

More info... I am sure there will be a flurry of posts as we fill in the gaps on this cam set up and nest activity.

Zitat

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June 21, 2013 - Early in 2013 the Saskatchewan Science Centre and Wascana Centre identified a Cooper's Hawk nest in Wascana Park. Recognizing an incredible opportunity to see into the lives of one of Saskatchewan’s most intriguing animals, plans were set in motion to document the activities in the nest. With financial support from TD Friends of the Environment a live webcam was installed near the nest. The nest contained five eggs at the time that the camera was installed, in addition to both male and female adult Cooper’s Hawks. The feed went live on the evening of June 20th.

As of this morning, June 21, 2013, three of the eggs have hatched. The video feed is fascinating as you watch the adult birds bring animals to the nest to feed the babies, enjoy images of the mother bird preening the young birds’ feathers, or see the baby birds huddling against the wind when both parents are gone. You can watch the stream live by going to the Saskatchewan Science Centre Website: http://www.sasksciencecentre.com/here/exhibits/529.html

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Links to some Youtube videos

The Saskatchewan Science Centre is located at 2903 Powerhouse Drive, Regina, SK and it looks like the park where the nest is located is directly east of the Centre.

Sask Centre.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

A number of chatters have been wondering what the male Cooper's hawk looks like. Here is a video of him relinquishing his place on the nest to the female. May be the only good look we can get of him.

http://tinyurl.com/lbrzmxd

Our ncaerie has landed! Woo Hoo!

Sask Science Hawk Cam 'The Five Little Cooper's' 10:23 am (local time) _7.08.13_ ncaerie

Thanks for the videos, ncaerie and patticake! So cute! Sometimes one of the chicks is turned around backwards during feeding, so it's good to see all five going at it!

SSC COHA 'Whoa! Don't Get Pushy Sibs!' 1:50 pm local time) _7.09.13_ ncaerie

This morning it was nice to see all five little hawks lined up for a share of the meal Mom brought. They seem so well-behaved! I bet that will change over time. After feeding her chicks, Mom flew up to a limb just out of our view to the left. That is where she maintains her vigil at night and perches a lot during the day. A tip of her tail can be seen most of the time. Once the meal was over, the chicks formed a cogwheel with heads pointed in and did a group PS (or slice, as the Cornell group calls it). Then they exercised their wings, flapping like crazy. Flight feathers are growing in nicely, and by Friday, dark feathers will appear on their heads..

Sask COHA 'The "Feed Me" Choral Group' 8:45 am (local time) _7.10.13_ Thanks ncaerie!

Chatter Altazena provided this very useful information about Cooper's hawks:


The following is from Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World by Brown and Amadon.

This hawk is very similar in all plumages to the Sharp-shinned Hawk. The larger female Sharp-shinned can easily be confused with the smaller male Cooper’s. Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks are mutually exclusive in the breeding season.

Cooper’s Hawks are partially migratory. A few winter as far north as central New York, while others reach Costa Rica and even Columbia. It often travels in company with members of the genus [Accipiter] or other hawks, and the majority have left the northern US by October.

Food: It prefers medium-sized birds: starlings, robins, blackbirds, meadowlarks, and flickers. The female takes prey as large as Ruffed Grouse.

Frequent mammalian prey are chipmunks and Red Squirrels. Lizards and amphibians are sometimes eaten, as well as large insects.

Breeding Habits

Males defend an area 100 meters in diameter where he calls occasionally and, when and if a female appears, feeds her. Either sex, or the pair together, perform courtship flights. Some pairs perform such flights frequently for a month or so.

A pair, undoubtedly the same, may nest year after year in the same tract of woods, but a new nest site is as a rule taken each year. The male selects the nest site and does most of the building.

The pair roost not far away and at daybreak, about 5:30, begin a ‘duet’, the male first, uttering a great variety of notes. At 6:30 or 7:00 the male begins building and may bring a stick every few minutes and waste no time working it into a nest.

The female perches nearby and several times during the morning the male flies to her and mates. In mid-afternoon the male goes hunting; the female may also, but receives most of her food from the male.

There is usually no further nest-building for the day. It takes 2 weeks to build; little or no work is done on stormy days. However, if a clutch is lost another nest may be built in as little as 4 days.

Nests of pairs are normally not closer than 1.5 miles apart; nor do Sharp-shinned Hawks nest within the same distance.

A day or two before laying the nest is lined with flakes of hemlock, oak, or maple bark. The male also adds an occasional green spray, but always less than in buteos.

When the young are two weeks old the nest gets crowded and the female adds a few sticks each day. At this time the male comes to the nest only to bring food (though usually intercepted by the female).

The eggs (normally four or five) are laid one every other day. Clutches of six occur rarely. Mating continues through nest-building and egg-laying; then ceases.

Incubation starts with laying of the third egg and is almost entirely by the female, but the male may take over briefly while the female is eating food he has brought. The first three eggs pip after 34 days.

Next day the holes are slightly larger, and on the 36th day these hatch and the fourth is pipped. On the following day the fifth egg is pipped and the fourth hatches.

If the first three eggs hatch, young from a fifth egg (if present) usually starves or smothers within a week. If a young dies it is eaten by others. [Note, this didn’t happen on this nest.]

After incubation starts, the male continues on his usual roost nearby. When the male begins dawn ‘singing’ the female flies over and participates for 10 to 15 minutes, but returns before he finishes.

By the third week the female leaves the nest only to take food from the male or to defecate. The male gradually ceases dawn chorus.

The female is very attentive at hatching and will even help the young out of the eggs. The shells are carried 50 yards or more away and dropped, but if an egg does not hatch it is left in the nest indefinitely.

When the young are small the female often preens at the edge of the nest, feeds the young, and shields them from rain and sun. The female sleeps on the nest until the young are two weeks old.

She discontinues this practice only when there is no longer room for her in the nest; she may then perch a few feet away for a night or two before selecting a perch within 50 feet of the nest.

During the first 3 weeks the female is very attentive and the male is seldom allowed to bring food to the nest; she meets him. After 3 weeks the female is often absent; the male then takes food to the nest.

After the young leave the nest, the male will bring prey to the nest and wait for the young to come piling back for it; or go and look for them and often fly ahead of them back to the nest and drop the prey there.

Later the young meet the male coming with prey and buffet him so that it is dropped and they eat it on any convenient log. Usually the male eats the head and viscera of prey before bring it to his mate or young.

Most of the plucking is done where the prey is caught and only the finishing touches at the plucking stump. There he plucks, then calls ‘kik’, the female soon answers ‘whar’ and flies for the prey.

It takes her 10-30 minutes to feed the young, which gather in a semi-circle. When only a skeleton remains she carries it to a perch to finish. If a male brings more food than is needed it is placed on an old nest nearby and used as appetite dictates.

The male has to hunt constantly when the young are large; and plucks the prey less thoroughly and does not decapitate it. The young, eating this roughage, begin to cast a pellet each day, usually at 6 am.

The young grow very rapidly for the first 17 days; then slow down abruptly before feathering out and continue to grow slowly for about three weeks until feathered out and full grown.

At the age of 3 weeks a female nestling can stand and feed herself. One of the smaller and more agile males may move next to her and snatch every piece of meat she tears off, as though he were taking it from the adult female.

From this age on they become very active. Males usually leave the nest at 30 days, females at 34. Food may be brought to the nest for 10 days thereafter and the young at first return to sleep or rest also. They also sprawl out sunning on the nest.

[These five eggs hatched on approximately 6/20, 6/20, 6/21, 6/22, and 6/23 (info from chatter Pops). Therefore, normal fledging should occur between July 20 and 27, more or less. And we may have sightings at the nest up to August 6 or so.]

It takes them some 3 weeks to learn to hunt; they slowly start to hunt for themselves at about 8 weeks old. During this time they are dependent upon their parents for food.

I was watching mom feed her babies this morning and they all looked so sweet and well behaved as they waited their turn to get a bite. I decided to video a little bit of the feeding and just happened to catch dad make a delivery. He's FAST! He shows up at 2:34 in the video. Don't blink!

Good catch, Patti. Like the goshawks, Mom Cooper's really rules the roost. Dad is intimidated by her big time, but he knows it is his job to catch the meals. And I bet he'll sneak in there to cuddle the babies when she's not looking.

Banding Day
I was amazed at how calm they were. R4 said they were playing possum and I believe it! Here's a video I made for R4's scrapbook.
(I didn't like this guy pulling them by the leg either. That just didn't look good to me at all but I'm sure that guy knows more than I do about banding birds)

Thank you so much for recording this video, Patti. It's full of good information. Yes, I noticed the bander pull two of the chicks out by a leg, and said "ouch" to myself. But, in his defense, he was using only one arm to fish the chicks out of the nest, probably holding on for dear life with the other. The tiny hawklets clung to the sticks in the nest, and he had to pull them away. They appear to be fine, and I sincerely hope they are.

Hmm, I just watched the video again, and the bander was using both arms.

Jared the bander guy was chatting at the coha site and said there are 4 males and 1 female in the nest. He put red bands on 2 of the males. I'll bet R4 will have all the details to share with us later.