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Researchers Observed About 520 Cooper’s Hawks in an Albuquerque Study Area in 2025

Wild Cooper's hawk bathing beside a city street
Conservation · Population & status

A long-running urban study in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, recorded about 520 Cooper’s hawks (Astur cooperii) in its study area in 2025, including 208 adults and 312 young produced. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published the new project update on 10 April 2026.

Urban Cooper’s hawks have been followed since 2011

Researchers have followed Cooper’s hawks in a 28-square-mile (72 km²) area of northeastern Albuquerque since 2011. The project combines banding with GPS transmitters, allowing individuals to be followed over time and helping researchers recover tagged birds quickly when a transmitter indicates that an animal has died.

The 2026 update confirms that monitoring is continuing and gives the current size of the observed study population. The figure of about 520 birds describes the Albuquerque study area in 2025; it is not a census of Cooper’s hawks across the city, New Mexico or the species’ wider range.

The mortality figures come from earlier research

The Fish and Wildlife Service also summarises results from a peer-reviewed mortality study published in 2024. Among 88 tagged female hawks recovered after death, 59 deaths were classified as human-caused. Collisions were the largest category, affecting 37 birds, while eight were intentionally killed. These figures provide background for the continuing monitoring programme rather than new mortality data collected in 2026.

Bar chart showing causes of death among 88 tagged and recovered Cooper's hawks in Albuquerque
Causes of death among 88 tagged and recovered Cooper’s hawks. Graph: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; hawk image: National Park Service. Public domain. Data from Millsap, Madden & Murphy (2024).

The long-term project continues to combine tracking, carcass recovery and demographic monitoring to examine survival in an urban raptor population. The April 2026 update therefore adds a new annual population snapshot while retaining the previously published mortality results as context for the hazards the birds face.

Sources and image credit

  1. Gladish, S. (2026, April 10). Cooper’s Hawk Cause-of-Death Study Aims to Help with Conservation Efforts. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Primary dated 2026 project update. Reports about 520 Cooper’s hawks in the Albuquerque study area in 2025, including 208 adults and 312 young; it also summarizes mortality findings from the earlier peer-reviewed study.
  2. Millsap, B. A., Madden, K. K., & Murphy, R. K. (2024). Causes of Death of Female Cooper’s Hawks from an Urban Setting in New Mexico, USA. Journal of Raptor Research, 58, 1–14.Supporting peer-reviewed source for the mortality results summarized in the 2026 USFWS update. The 2024 paper is background only and does not determine the Wildlife Vagabond publication date.

Image: Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren — wild Cooper's hawk bathing on a city street, 21 May 2019; Wikimedia Commons/Flickr. Representative image for this story; not presented as an animal or scene from the reported study or event. · CC BY 2.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

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