Street smarts: How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully

Adult Cooper’s hawk dispatching a house sparrow. Image Credit: Vladimir Dinets

In a fascinating example of urban wildlife adaptation, a Cooper’s hawk in a US city has been observed using traffic signals as part of its hunting strategy, according to a recent study published in Frontiers in Ethology. The bird, a juvenile winter visitor, learned to associate pedestrian signals and queued vehicles with ideal hunting conditions, using cars as moving camouflage to ambush unsuspecting prey.

The hawk’s behavior was first spotted by a local resident who noticed the bird regularly appearing at a city intersection during winter mornings. Each time the pedestrian button was pressed, triggering a longer red light and an audio cue for visually impaired pedestrians, the Cooper’s hawk would swoop into a dense roadside tree. From this hidden perch, it launched swift attacks on small birds feeding in a residential front yard across the street.

Crucially, the bird’s timing was tied to the signal and subsequent buildup of traffic, which provided the cover it needed to approach without detection. “That meant that the hawk understood the connection between the sound and the eventual car queue length,” the observer noted, adding that the hawk appeared to memorize the layout of its surroundings to strike with precision even when its prey was temporarily obscured.

By the following winter, an adult Cooper’s hawk was seen hunting in the same manner, likely the same bird, now matured. However, when the pedestrian signal later broke and the food source disappeared, so did the hawk.

This remarkable case of learned behavior highlights the intelligence and adaptability of urban raptors, especially species like the Cooper’s hawk, which are increasingly finding ways to survive in dense cityscapes. The authors of the study argue that such cognitive flexibility is essential for wildlife to coexist with growing human infrastructure.

“Cooper’s hawks manage to survive and thrive [in cities], at least in part, by being very smart,” the editorial concludes.

Read the full study here: Street smarts: a remarkable adaptation in a city-wintering raptor