{"id":73533,"date":"2020-09-07T06:38:12","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T12:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=73533"},"modified":"2025-05-25T11:37:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T16:37:20","slug":"focusing-on-taking-immature-coopers-hawk-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/09\/07\/focusing-on-taking-immature-coopers-hawk-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Focusing On Taking Immature Cooper’s Hawk Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"YoungYoung Cooper’s Hawk on a lichen encrusted cliff face \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/200, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday morning was a bit odd because of smoke that was pouring into far northern Utah from who knows where. The highly visible, multiple layers of smoke made the familiar landscape feel otherworldly to me. I didn’t allow the smoke in the air to ruin the morning though, I still found plenty of birds to photograph.<\/p>\n

The first bird I photographed yesterday morning was an immature Cooper’s Hawk that I found because I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk on a cliff face that the young raptor decided to harass.<\/p>\n

After dive bombing the Red-tailed Hawk a few times the immature Cooper’s landed on a lichen encrusted cliff face and perched there long enough for me to take a few photos of it before I aimed my lens at the larger buteo who was perched higher on the cliff.<\/p>\n

Even though the sun was up over the horizon my shutter speeds at my default setting of ISO 500 were low due to the smoke in the east in front of the rising sun diffusing the amount of light on my subject. Of the photos I took of the young hawk on the cliff face this image was the sharpest.<\/p>\n

I aimed my lens at the Cooper’s Hawk first because I have thousands and thousands of Red-tailed Hawk images and far fewer photos of Cooper’s Hawks. I want more photos of this species in my portfolio so making the choice to take images of this young bird first was a no-brainer for me.<\/p>\n

When the immature Cooper’s Hawk flew off I paid attention to the direction the sleek bird of prey took.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Cooper’s Hawk in smoky early morning light \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

And I located the hawk again on top of a ranch gate. I wasn’t able to take photos of the young bird on top of the gate but when it flew down and landed on the gate railing I took a nice, long series of it in the smoky early morning light.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Cooper’s Hawk in front of blooming sunflowers \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I was delight with the background in the series of photos I took of the immature Cooper’s Hawk because there were blooming wild sunflowers behind the hawk and gate railing. The spots of yellow added a nice pop of color to my photos.<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Cooper’s Hawk looking at the ground \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/400, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

For a bit the immature Cooper’s hawk seemed focused on something I couldn’t see on the ground without taking my eyes away from the viewfinder. I wasn’t about to do that though when I had this striking, young accipiter to focus on.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Cooper’s Hawk perched on a gate railing \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The young Cooper’s Hawk looked around to the east, west and south as it perched on the railing of the gate. When the young accipiter turned towards the east in this photo I could easily see the blockiness of its head that is often used to describe this species especially when comparing it to its near look-alike relative the Sharp-shinned Hawk.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Cooper’s Hawk letting poop fly \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I saw the immature Cooper’s Hawk get ready to defecate or as I sometimes call it “letting it fly” and captured the liquid stream of poop as fell towards the ground below the railing.<\/p>\n

I laughed out loud when I realized I had captured poop flying. How could I not?<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Cooper’s Hawk on a smoky September morning \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

A few frames later I was waiting for the young accipiter to lift off because they often do after releasing a load of poop. When the hawk took off it decided to face southeast towards a hillside and I didn’t get a single photo that had a clear view of its eyes.<\/p>\n

I’m happy that I had this yellow-eyed, immature Cooper’s Hawk in my viewfinder for as long as I did and that I have been able to add more images of the species to my photo galleries.<\/p>\n

Life is good. Stay safe.<\/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":"

The first bird I photographed yesterday morning was an immature Cooper’s Hawk that I found because I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk on a cliff face that the young accipiter decided to harass.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147106,"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":[27,1148,5715,26],"tags":[10402,5397,2663,6098,5716,5135,4098,6692,6888,4033,4169,4067,4378,4375,3917,10403,8611,153,10404,105,1028,4307,4193],"class_list":["post-73533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-coopers-hawks","category-utah","tag-accipiter","tag-accipiters","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-blooming","tag-coopers-hawk","tag-defecating","tag-desert","tag-early-morning-light","tag-gate","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-immature","tag-morning","tag-poop","tag-pooping","tag-railing","tag-ranch","tag-raptors","tag-smoky","tag-sunflowers","tag-wild-sunflowers","tag-wildflowers","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/coopers-hawk-immature-gate-mia-mcpherson-2202.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-j81","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":60409,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/09\/23\/hatch-year-coopers-hawk-resting-in-sagebrush\/","url_meta":{"origin":73533,"position":0},"title":"Hatch 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