Broad-winged Hawks can be found across the eastern part of the United States and into Canada. They migrate over 4,000 miles to Mexico and down to Southern Brazil, covering an average of 70 miles each day. During migration Broad-winged Hawks often concentrate into groups that number in the thousands! These large groups are called ‘kettles’.

When a hawks finds a column of warm air they stretch out their wings to rise with it. Using these warm air columns the birds can travel large distances just gliding on the power of the sun. Nature photographer M. Timothy O’Keefe theorizes that the word ‘kettle’ derives from the appearance of birds circling tightly in a thermal updraft “like something boiling in a cauldron.”

Have you ever seen a kettle of hawks?

Cooper’s Hawks live in dense evergreen and deciduous forests throughout southern Canada and the United States. It was named in 1828 after the American zoologist William Cooper, who collected the specimens that were used to describe the species. It is also called Chicken Hawk or Hen Hawk, as these birds can be a problem around poultry farms where they may help themselves to unwary chickens.

These little daredevils will dash through dense vegetation and crowded trees while hunting to catch birds, but this is a rather dangerous lifestyle. A study found that 23 percent of all Cooper’s Hawks examined had healed fractures in the bones of the chest!

Cooper’s Hawk is the answer to the last Spot the Birdorable.

We’ve added the Golden Eagle to Birdorable. These magnificent birds can be found across the northern hemisphere. It is common in western North America, where it is the third largest bird of prey, after the Bald Eagle and the California Condor. They are not typically found in the eastern part of the United States as they don’t like to hang around largely populated areas.

Unfortunately, habit destruction has caused a noticeable decline in Golden Eagle populations, especially across Europe. It used to be numerous and live on plains in temperate Europe, but humans have pushed the species to live in the mountains, where it is mostly restricted to the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe. The Golden Eagle is the national bird of Austria, Germany, Kazakhstan and Scotland.

Golden Eagles can be trained for falconry and are still used by nomads in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to hunt foxes and wolves. The Kazakh and Kyrgyz nomads call the bird burkut or berkut. Here is an old photo of a Kazakh falconer with his eagle:

The Harris Hawk is a bird of prey that lives from the southwestern United States to Chile and central Argentina. Unlike most raptors, who only come together for breeding and migration, Harris Hawks hunt in groups of two to six. This behavior is an adaptation to the desert climate in which they live and it allows them to take down larger prey, such as hares.

Harris Hawks are used a lot in falconry because of their easy going nature. In European towns they are used to scare Pigeons and Starlings. They are also used at airports to scare birds away from runways to reduce the risk of birdstrikes with planes.