FCAS Presents

“The Story of the Cooper's Hawk
How the bird has changed, how our knowledge about the bird has changed, and how the bird has changed us”

Thursday, January 9th, 2025
Refreshments 7:00;
Announcements 7:20;
Presentation 7:30;
Door Prize Drawing (Must be present to win)
Fort Collins Senior Center, 1200 Raintree Dr.

***This program will also be accessible online using Zoom***

It will also be viewable in-person at the Senior Center.

Enter the following link on your web browser at 7 p.m. and follow the instructions to join the meeting virtually: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8215303844

Cooper's Hawk photo by Ted Floyd

The Cooper's Hawk occupies a very different place from where it did a half century ago. In the mid-1970s, it was a scarce, declining, persecuted “chicken hawk” of forested landscapes. It was a well-known challenge for field identification, and birders wondered aloud whether it would one day be “lumped” with a similar-seeming species, the Sharp-shinned Hawk. But in the mid-2020s, the Cooper's Hawk is a common, increasing, and increasingly admired devourer of starlings and collared-doves in towns and cities nationwide. The species has recently been assigned to the genus “Astur”, more closely related to the Northern Harrier than to the Sharp-shinned Hawk. Coope's Hawks today can be said to occupy an entire suite of places different from their 20th-century antecedents: in the environment, in the books we write, and in the neurons and synapses of our prefrontal cortexes.

Ted Floyd is the Editor of “Birding” Magazine, and he is also the author of more than 200 popular articles, technical papers, and book chapters on birds and nature.

TJoin us for this Ted Floyd informative presentation on the “;changed” Cooper's Hawk. This program is free and the public is welcomed!