The little birds that normally gather around the bird feeder in our back yard were definitely not present for the visit. It seems that Cooper’s Hawk is a predator of small rodents and birds as large as doves and pheasants. This one appears to be an adult male hawk, with a wingspan of about 30 inches.
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From WikiPedia:
These birds capture prey from cover or while flying quickly through dense vegetation, relying almost totally on surprise. Most prey are mid-sized birds, with typical prey including American Robins, jays, woodpeckers, European Starlings, icterids and doves. Birds preyed on can range in size from wood-warblers to Ring-necked Pheasants. Cooper’s Hawks also eat small mammals, especially rodents such as chipmunks and tree squirrels. Mammalian prey can be as small as mice and as large as hares. Other possibilities are lizards, frogs, snakes and large insects. The hawks often pluck the feathers off their prey on a post or other perch. They are increasingly seen hunting smaller songbirds in backyards with feeders. They will perch in trees overlooking the feeders, then swoop down and scatter the other birds in order to capture one in flight.