Birds don’t have very large brains, but they are super clever!

Recently, researchers in New Jersey discovered the Cooper’s Hawk (库珀鹰) can understand how to use human traffic rules to hunt, so that they hunt more easily and successfully. This was discovered by Vladimir Dinets, who is both an animal expert and a mathematician, and his research was published on May 23, 2025, in Frontiers in Animal Behavior. Other studies have pointed out that birds often use human buildings and vehicles(机动车) to help them hunt, but recognizing traffic lights is a first.

In the winter of 2021 Dinets saw a young Cooper’s Hawk standing in a tree near the traffic lights. It flew low with the cover of stopped cars, and disappeared into the front yard across the street. A moment later, it reappeared, catching a sparrow (麻雀). This hunt left a deep impression on Dinets. It seemed to know when the traffic light was red.

Through continued observation (观察), Dinets believes it recognized traffic lights through the buzzing sound when the red light was on at a certain time. Also, the hawk knew that sparrows would be at a certain house because the owner put out rubbish every day. So, the hawk used the cars which lined up to get close to the sparrows without being seen, making it easier to catch them.

This is more difficult than imagined.

The Cooper’s Hawk can’t see its prey (猎物) from the tree. So it has to remember the surroundings (环境) and work out its way. Also, it has to know that some buzzing sounds have something to do with traffic lights. This behavior must come from careful calculations (计算), a great memory, and complex (复杂的) thinking skills. In a word, to have this hunting skill needs a lot of intelligence (智力).

Maybe other animals can do the same, but this Cooper’s Hawk is the first wild animal they’ve discovered. These birds fly through here when migrating (迁徙) in summer and winter. This means the Cooper’s Hawk probably learned to do this in just a few days or weeks.

Finally, Dinets also saw a Cooper’s Hawk hunting in the same manner the following winter(2022), and he believes it is the same hawk, now an adult. However, in the summer of the year after that, the sound signal from the streetlight was gone, the people living there moved away, and there were no longer any sparrows there. From then on, until the article was published, Dinets never saw the Cooper’s Hawk nearby again.