Cooper's Hawk caching food? El Paso

[Marty W]

Hey, CoBirders,

The past 2 days I've at least 1, likely 2 adult (paired?) Cooper's Hawks in the backyard partially consuming & possibly caching the remains of pigeon(s). I looked up “Cooper’s Hawk” in Cornell Lab’s Birds of the World website and found this under Diet:

“During breeding season, both sexes cache uneaten prey on horizontal branches and retrieve it for themselves and their young; caching may be as frequent as 1/d for females with nestlings (RNR, JB; J. Papp, personal communication). No information on caching outside the breeding season.”

Whether a true form of caching (outside the breeding season) or not, this was a fascinating series of events to me. Has anyone else observed a Cooper’s coming back for seconds from a partially hidden previous day’s kill--or even needing to eat a half-pigeon less than 24 hours after doing the same?

For the detailed story and some of the gory pictures, you can see my 2 eBird submissions for 2/27 & 2/28 here:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S103948453

https://ebird.org/checklist/S103966642

Good birding!

Marty Wolf,

NW Colorado Springs