#3010 "Cooper's Hawk Up Close"

#3010 "Cooper's Hawk Up Close"
14 X 11 (inches).
Started at 10:00 am Sunday, March 15th, 2026

It was a wintry day outside with some freezing rain and ice pellets. Thanks to my friend John Verburg, I had something to work on within the Singleton Studio. The sketch took a while as there were a lot of feathers that had to be mostly correct!

This is my second Cooper's Hawk painting. The first was #2840 "Cooper's Glare". That one was an immature bird with a fierce look in its eyes. This adult male has piercing red eyes. Their eyes are so very intense and focused. Eyes are always the challenge. They must be perfect for the bird to live. 

The species was named in 1828 by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in honour of his friend and fellow ornithologist, William Cooper. Other common names for Cooper's hawk include: big blue darter, chicken hawk, flying cross, hen hawk, quail hawk, striker, and swift hawk. This species primarily hunts small-to-medium-sized birds, but will also commonly take small mammals and sometimes reptiles.

Cooper's hawk (Astur cooperii) is a medium-sized hawk and an agile woodland hunter using their short wings and long tail to maneuver through forests at nearly 60 mph. Coopers have a more rounded tail than the squared-off tail of a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Coopers are typically slightly bigger as well.

Dashing through vegetation to catch birds is a dangerous lifestyle. In a study of more than 300 Cooper’s Hawk skeletons, 23 percent showed old, healed-over fractures in the bones of the chest area. But a bird has to eye too! Even if it might kill you. 

A Cooper's Hawk captures a bird with its feet and kills it by repeatedly squeezing. Falcons tend to kill their prey by biting it, but Cooper’s Hawks hold their catch away from the body until it dies. They’ve even been known to drown their prey, holding a bird underwater until it stops moving.

As in many birds of prey, the male is smaller (by a third) than the female. Adult male and female Cooper's Hawks have the same general plumage pattern—bluish-gray backs and barred, reddish-orange underparts. However, they are not identical! Females possess a browner-gray back compared to the male's slate-blue, and often have paler, more orange-yellow eyes. Mature males have deep red eyes. 

Cooper’s Hawk 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. They commonly produce two to four fledglings.

Life is tricky for male Cooper’s Hawks. The danger is that female Cooper’s Hawks specialize in eating medium-sized birds. Does this mean that sometimes, a male that displeases the female might end up on the menu?  Males tend to be submissive to females and to listen out for reassuring call notes the females make when they’re willing to be approached. Males build the nest, then provide nearly all the food to females and young over the next 90 days before the young fledge.

The oldest recorded Cooper's Hawk was a male and at least 20 years, 4 months old. He was banded in California in 1986 and found in Washington in 2006.

Despite declines due to manmade causes, the bird remains a stable species.

A Cooper's hawk has 1,000 to 3,000 feathers, with the exact number varying by age, season, and size. Specific feather counts include 10 primary flight feathers on each wing, around 15 secondaries, and 12 tail feathers. That is my excuse for getting lost in the chest feathers of this portrait. I tried to remain painterly while being truthful to colour, tone and plummage. The above collage documents the challenges and just some of the steps I took to try to get it right with as large a brush as feasible. 

Almost done...

For this and much more art, click on the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick