[TN-Bird] Re: Cooper's lifting capacity
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 14:20:56 -0600
TN-Birders:
To put things in a little perspective about the ability of
a Cooper's Hawk to carry a house cat, it would at
best determine the size of the kitten.
I would think it very doubtful that a full grown, adult
female (largest of the species) Cooper's Hawk can
carry much over 8 ounces of weight. A male might
not be able to lift more than about 5 ounces.
I do know this much for a fact. We have for years
trapped and banded Red-tailed Hawks and
Cooper's Hawks during winter raptor studies.
We use a small cage with a starling or mouse to
lure the hawk to come after it for food. The hawk's feet
become tangled in little nooses and it can't escape
until we run back to the bird and pick it up for banding.
The cage with mouse weighs 1.5 pounds (24 ounces).
A male Red-tailed (3.4 pounds) and a female Red-tailed
(5.1 pounds) can not carry the trap but can drag it a short
distance of a few feet. Generally, a Red-tail cannot lift
more than 30% of its body weight
A male Cooper's Hawk (1.1 pounds) and a female
Cooper's (1.7 pounds) can barely move the
trap and cannot lift it or drag it nearly as well as a
Red-tailed of either sex.
Therefore, if a female Cooper's Hawk cannot lift more
than 30% of her weight she is limited to about 8 ounces
of prey lift if it is taken from the ground. If she jumped
off a building or a cliff with that much weight her fall
and wing loading plus power flapping might hold both
the hawk and prey up for a few yards.
An 8 ounce kitten is not very big. But a big female
Cooper's Hawk could possibly get the job done without
much trouble. If a full grown house cat gets a hold of a
Cooper's Hawk of any size, you would probably find a
pile of feathers and little loss fur.
Let's go birding......
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958
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