{"id":61903,"date":"2019-12-07T05:57:05","date_gmt":"2019-12-07T12:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=61903"},"modified":"2025-05-25T10:42:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T15:42:43","slug":"immature-coopers-hawk-appearing-just-a-bit-goofy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/12\/07\/immature-coopers-hawk-appearing-just-a-bit-goofy\/","title":{"rendered":"Immature Cooper’s Hawk Appearing Just A Bit Goofy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes raptors can look deadly serious and intense, especially when they are watching, diving on or consuming prey but they can appear to look a little goofy too. I’ve found that the goofiest and funniest images I take of raptors are from when I photograph them preening.<\/p>\n

To see these photos larger in a slide show just click on the first image.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Immature<\/a><\/div><\/div>
\"Immature<\/a><\/div><\/div>
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\"Immature<\/a><\/div><\/div>
\"Nictitating<\/a><\/div><\/div>
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I spotted an immature Cooper’s Hawk on the first day of October this year high in a mountain canyon that spent quite a bit of time preening while perched on an old wooden fence rail.<\/p>\n

The young hawk stretched, preened, and scratched which gave me time to take a ton of photos of it. I couldn’t resist laughing a few times as I took photo after photo of the young Cooper’s scratching its chin, looking at its talons, preening its neck feathers and exposing its nictitating membrane.<\/p>\n

I took so many photos that I still<\/em> haven’t gone through them all more than two months later.<\/p>\n

Of course the goofiness I see is just the young Cooper’s Hawk doing what birds do and how I interpret what I see.<\/p>\n

Not only do I look for birds everywhere I go, I also look for humor in nature.<\/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<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes raptors can look deadly serious and intense, especially when they are watching, diving on or consuming prey but they can appear to look a little goofy too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147077,"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":[27,5715,4594,26,773],"tags":[5397,5717,2663,3940,5716,834,4157,730,4033,4169,2386,4067,4069,4104,4019,153,7711,8104],"class_list":["post-61903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-coopers-hawks","category-morgan-county","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-accipiters","tag-astur-cooperii","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-canyon","tag-coopers-hawk","tag-fence-rail","tag-funny","tag-goofy","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-immature","tag-mountains","tag-perched","tag-preening-2","tag-raptors","tag-wooden","tag-woodlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/coopers-hawk-immature-funny-face-mia-mcpherson-2933.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-g6r","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":124590,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/03\/17\/coopers-hawk-nearly-hidden-and-in-plain-sight\/","url_meta":{"origin":61903,"position":0},"title":"Cooper’s 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