Cooper’s hawk calling at UC Davis...

Was at the end of a bike ride to work yesterday and was biking by the UC Davis Vet School when I heard a screeching bird. I was not sure what it was but I knew I had heard something like it before and also that it was not common.

So (1) got off my bike (2) got out my iPhone (3) opened the Merlin App and (4) starting the “Start New Recording” option and very quickly it IDd the bird as a Cooper’s hawk.

So then I got out my camera (I had brought a relatively new travel camera – a Nikon CoolPix) with me on my ride and had been taking pics along the way but put it in my backpack when I got near the Vet School – assuming incoorectly I would not want to take any more pics now that I was close to my office).

And I tried to figure out where the call was coming from. It took a bit but I found the bird and first made a video with my phoen and then took some pics. They are below.

Author: Jonathan Eisen

I am an evolutionary biologist and a Professor at U. C. Davis. (see my lab site here). My research focuses on the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate). To study this I focus on sequencing and analyzing genomes of organisms, especially microbes and using phylogenomic analysis
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