Classic bird paintings
Cooper's Hawk painting: Audubon's plate and other classic portraits
John James Audubon painted the Cooper's Hawk as plate 36 of The Birds of America (1827–38), under his own name for it, the Stanley Hawk. A free high-resolution scan is on Audubon.org. The painting shown here is by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, from a US Department of Agriculture yearbook of 1908.
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About this painting
This adult with a small bird in its feet, and the streaked young hawk below, were painted by Louis Agassiz Fuertes for a Yearbook of the US Department of Agriculture in 1908. More about the painter in our guide to Louis Agassiz Fuertes.
Audubon’s Cooper's Hawk: plate 36, “Stanley Hawk”
Audubon named the bird for Lord Stanley, President of the Linnean Society of London, and painted a young male about to seize an exhausted bluebird, with an adult female. Later he learned that Charles Bonaparte had already named the same bird Falco Cooperii, from a specimen sent by a Mr. Cooper, and he agreed that his own name “must, however, now give place.”
One November morning near Bayou Sara, Louisiana, a Stanley Hawk flew past him so close that he could almost have touched it with his gun; it went on to attack a rooster at a farmhouse. An adult male appears again on plate 141, beside a Goshawk, so readers could compare the two.
Story: Audubon’s Ornithological Biography, vols. 1 (1831), 2 (1834) and 5 (1839). See plate 36 free at Audubon.org. See plate 141 free at Audubon.org.
More classic portraits, free to see
- John James Audubon, The Birds of America, octavo edition (1840–44), plate 24: “Cooper's Hawk”. Free scan (New York Public Library Digital Collections)
- Louis Agassiz Fuertes, for Elon H. Eaton’s Birds of New York (1910–14), plate 44: “Cooper Hawk”, with the Sharp-shinned Hawk. Free scan (Internet Archive)
- Louis Agassiz Fuertes, for Elon H. Eaton’s Birds of New York (1910–14), plate 46: “Cooper Hawk”, with the Red-tailed Hawk. Free scan (Internet Archive)
About the Cooper's Hawk
- A Cooper's Hawk often hunts by moving quietly from perch to perch, then speeding after its prey. (Source: National Audubon Society)
- Its eggs usually hatch after 34 to 36 days. (Source: National Audubon Society)
The oldest known wild Cooper's Hawk lived at least 20 years and 4 months: it was banded in California in 1986 and found in Washington in 2006. That is a record from bird banding, not a typical lifespan. (Source: USGS Bird Banding Laboratory, 2025 longevity table.) How long do wild birds live?
Buying a print?
An original plate 36 is a hand-colored sheet about 26 by 38 inches, printed in Britain in 1827–38; many prints sold today are reproductions or small 1840s octavo prints. How to tell an original from a reproduction.
In a Birdfolio, the hardcover book of your own life list, this painting sits beside the Cooper's Hawk with the date and place you first saw one. See your own list as a book, free.