Bird brain — clever New Jersey hawk uses crosswalk signal in hunting strategy

Bird brain — clever New Jersey hawk uses crosswalk signal in hunting strategy

Motor vehicles are among the top five causes of bird death in the United States, killing about 200 million birds in collisions every year. But a juvenile Cooper's Hawk has turned the tables, developing an ingenious method for using cars and traffic signals to its advantage. — Read the rest The post Bird brain — clever New Jersey hawk uses crosswalk signal in hunting strategy appeared first on Boing Boing.

'Remarkable' Behavior: Hawk Uses New Jersey Crosswalk to Hunt

A new research study details how a very clever Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperi) living in urban New Jersey figured out how to leverage crosswalk signals to better hunt its prey. Authors of the study say scientists haven’t observed this use of human traffic patterns among wildlife before. “An immature Cooper’s hawk was observed hunting birds near a road intersection using queues of cars waiting for green light as cover,” the study says. “The que…