What’s in a Name?

Part Two : The Cooper’s Hawk

In the What’s in a Name series, we dive into the entangled and problematic histories of naming birds after specific people. In November, I introduced readers to the American Ornithological Society’s decision to change the names of birds that were subjected to nomenclature. We learned about the Bonaparte’s Gull and Charles Lucien Bonaparte. I mentioned that the three birds that will be covered in the trilogy are tied together in their names. Let’s go figure out how a gull, a hawk, and a warbler are connected!

The Cooper’s Hawk

Astur cooperii

By Mykola Swarnyk – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92517992

The Cooper’s Hawk is a medium raptor in the astur genus and found year-round in the Lower 48, summer in southern Canada, and winter in Central America. They have gray wings, tail, and top of head. Their chest and underside is white with brownish-orange horizontal lines. Their eyes are an amber color and their legs are a dull yellow. It is extremely hard for me to tell this species apart from the smaller Sharp-shinned Hawk, but I will do my best to explain the differences. I know that I said that the Sharp-Shinned is smaller, but that is only half-true. Raptors are affected by reverse sexual dimorphism, which causes the females to be larger than males. This is not specific to raptors – Male sandpipers and owls, to name a few, are also dwarfed by the females. A great way to prove you cannot tell the Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks apart by size is the fact that a male Cooper’s and a female Sharp-shinned are approximately the same size.

William Cooper

Now lets get to the part that connects them all! William Cooper was a 19th century American naturalist and collector. He was also a shell zoologist. Cooper was born in the late 1700s and lived to be 81 before his death in 1864. His specimens were used by many, including John James Audubon and Charles Lucien Bonaparte. After Cooper collected the first known specimen of Accipiter cooperii, Bonaparte named the bird after him.

What would you name this bird?

If I were to rename the Cooper’s Hawk, I would call it something along the lines of Amber-eyed Hawk or Shrieking Hawk. When considering this question, take into account the habitat, behavior, and/or physical qualities. Be creative with your name and don’t forget that it doesn’t matter if your name is anything like a hawks name, whatever that may be. Please remember that there is such a thing as a Noisy Scrub-bird! If you would like, share your name in the comments.