She’s been saving me a lot on bird seed lately, mostly by scaring the other birds off–her successful catch rate is very low. I say “she” because this is a fairly large bird and…..well, here is what the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has to say about that–“Life is tricky for male Cooper’s Hawks. As in most hawks, males are significantly smaller than their mates. The danger is that female Cooper’s Hawks specialize in eating medium-sized birds. Males tend to be submissive to females and to listen out for reassuring call notes the females make when they’re willing to be approached. Males build the nest, then provide nearly all the food to females and young over the next 90 days before the young fledge.” http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Coopers_Hawk/lifehistory

Obviously, a more “primitive” evolutionary arrangement than that favored by hominids :-).