{"id":124590,"date":"2024-03-17T04:56:08","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T10:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=124590"},"modified":"2025-05-08T04:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T09:27:08","slug":"coopers-hawk-nearly-hidden-and-in-plain-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/03\/17\/coopers-hawk-nearly-hidden-and-in-plain-sight\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooper’s Hawk – Nearly Hidden And In Plain Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days ago, while I was photographing some Rock Squirrels, I saw a beautiful immature Cooper’s Hawk fly in and land in a tangle of trees near the squirrels.<\/p>\n

Nearly hidden immature Cooper’s Hawk \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f8, 1\/500, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

As much as I wish the young Cooper’s Hawk had been out in the open that didn’t happen. Instead, I thought I would use one of the photos I took of it to show how well hidden the young of this species can be because of their almost cryptic plumage.<\/p>\n

To the untrained eye, or for someone with failing eyesight, this immature accipiter might have been close to invisible. To my credit, I was able to point out the hawk to a man who asked me what I was photographing as he stopped to talk before walking past me.<\/p>\n

After this young hawk left its perch and took to the sky, it used the thermals in the area to spiral up into the sky. I wish I could have photographed that action, but the sun was behind the bird.<\/p>\n

\"RestingResting immature Cooper’s Hawk in the mountains \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When these immature Cooper’s Hawks are out in the open and in plain sight, they can be easier to spot and point out, sometimes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I was thrilled when I found this hatch-year Cooper’s Hawk high in the Wasatch Mountains in October of 2019. The young accipiter hung around this spot for several days that year and I took hundreds of photos of this hawk.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Cooper’s Hawk from a distance \u2013 Nikon D810, f8, 1\/1000, ISO 400, Nikkor 18-200mm VR at 52mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This last photo of that same young Cooper’s Hawk<\/span><\/a> was taken with my backup camera at 52mm, which gives about the same field of view as my own eyes. If this hawk had been positioned further to the left near the shrubs, it would not have been quite as easy for me to see.<\/p>\n

Paying attention to my surroundings has always had great benefits for me as a bird photographer and for anyone who is with me.<\/p>\n

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Cooper\u2019s Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two days ago, while I was photographing some Rock Squirrels, I saw a beautiful immature Cooper’s Hawk fly in and land in a tangle of trees near the squirrels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,5715,4594,709,26,773],"tags":[10402,5397,5717,970,6577,3940,5716,14480,6563,4620,3830,5047,5381,4033,4169,388,4067,6871,4069,4104,8053,153,4156,3973,11008,4427,4076,8018,30,4176,373,9767,8104,4193],"class_list":["post-124590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-coopers-hawks","category-morgan-county","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-accipiter","tag-accipiters","tag-astur-cooperii","tag-autumn","tag-branches","tag-canyon","tag-coopers-hawk","tag-cryptic-plumage","tag-distance","tag-fall","tag-fence","tag-first-spring","tag-hatch-year","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hidden","tag-immature","tag-morgan-county","tag-mountains","tag-perched","tag-plain","tag-raptors","tag-resting","tag-salt-lake-county","tag-sight","tag-tree","tag-trees","tag-urban","tag-utah-2","tag-wasatch-mountains","tag-winter","tag-wooden-fence","tag-woodlands","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/coopers-hawk-immature-nearly-hidden-mia-mcpherson-9960.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-wpw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":60618,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/10\/01\/photographing-a-cooperative-immature-coopers-hawk\/","url_meta":{"origin":124590,"position":0},"title":"Photographing 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