Welcome to Urban Wild, I’m your host. Today we’re talking about a clever Cooper’s hawk that learned to use traffic signals as its personal hunting tool. In a Frontiers in Ethology article, Dr. Vladimir Dinets describes how this medium-sized raptor waits quietly in a small streetside tree until a pedestrian presses the crosswalk button. That button not only extends the red light but also triggers a sound signal. As Dinets observed, “the raptor would fly from somewhere into the small tree, wait for the cars to line up, and then strike,” using the queue of vehicles as perfect cover. The hawk targeted sparrows and doves feasting on breadcrumbs in a nearby front yard, linking the audible cue to a longer queue and remembering the exact spot out of sight. An immature migrant bird mastered the trick, and by next winter an adult in the same spot confirmed it. Dinets’ findings show Cooper’s hawks survive—and even thrive—in cities by being very smart.
Link to Article