Hawk in the yard - What kind is it?

[xeon]

looks like a immature coopers to me. with the rounded tail and all. but one thing i noticed was the colour paterns on the tail feathers kinda look more like a sharp-shinned hawk. if it truly was the size of a crow there would be a better chance of it being a coopers, because a sharp-shinned hawk typical size is 10-14 inches. while a coopers hawk is 14-20 inches. great pictures!!

 

Fresh outa Sault College Ornithology, learnt from the best.

[singingdog]

Coopers. The round/square tail shape is not the best field mark for distinguishing between a coopers and a sharpie: tail shape is quite variable in sharpies.

 

Wing shape and overall shape in flight is the best way to distinguish between the 2. Sharpies have a very "hunched" look: short neck, immobile head, and wings held slightly forward in flight. Coopers look like a crucifix in flight: long, mobile neck with straighter, narrower wings. The difference in neck length, and mobility, is a good guide when the bird is sitting. A coopers hawk can look almost 180 degrees without moving it's body, and will "crane" it's neck to look at the ground. Sharpies have "stiff necks" and must turn their body or drop their shoulder to look behind them. They tilt forward or "tuck their chin" to look down.

 

Plumage is tough between the two. There is a difference between the streaking on the breast: sharpies have wide streaks, coopers thin streaks. Sharpies usually look "dirty chested" compared to Coopers, but that takes lots of observation which is hard with these 2 birds that are seldom seen.

 

The best plumage mark is the Coopers' broader, whiter terminal band on the tail: it is rarely visible on a sharpy, but quite obvious on coopers.

[limeyangler]

WOW...lol...cool post never thought people were so into birding here too...they are nutz for it in England...i figured cuz they killed everything else that was wild...lol.

 

 

OFC = Ornitholgist Favorite Network?

[Whitespinnerbait]

I vote for cooper's hawk

[tinbanger]

looks like a immature coopers to me. with the rounded tail and all. but one thing i noticed was the colour paterns on the tail feathers kinda look more like a sharp-shinned hawk. if it truly was the size of a crow there would be a better chance of it being a coopers, because a sharp-shinned hawk typical size is 10-14 inches. while a coopers hawk is 14-20 inches. great pictures!!

 

 

Glad to see your learning something up there LOL

 

Enjoy your day off , look forward to a report!

 

TB ( dad)

[Jason B]

Coopers hawk. Definatly no red tail.

[chilli]

I vote coopers. Sharp shins are more pigeon sized.

 

These Coopers will crash through the brush in pursuit of their prey. They've been captured with multiple fractures in their chest due to their high speed chases in the brush.

 

We have a healthy population of Cooper's hawks in Niagara.

[MJL]

Update:

 

I've been seeing a good number of hawks in my neighbourhood this fall as well as at my local tribs when I'm fishing for steelhead and browns. Managed to snap this pic today while I was out fishing one of the rivers. I took it at my camera's full 18X zoom and cropped it a little...Would this be another cooper's hawk?

 

 

Original picture

 

This fall I've been lucky enough to see at least 1 or 2 hawks fly by each time I fish the river. They're really beautiful birds.

[4thgen]

I would say the original pictures are of a hatch year Cooper's hawk. It's hard to say with MJL's new pictures but the size definately points toward Cooper's as well.

Edited October 29, 2009 by 4thgen

[Daplumma]

I am seeing more hawks on our farm this year than ever before. Since the winter set in ive been seeing one on average every couple of days. I always assumed they were red tail hawks, but after reading this thread im not so sure. The hawks ive been seeing looked more like a juvenile coopers hawk but I really cant be sure.

 

In the fall I had a dozen or so layer chickens outside free ranging. I came around the shed in time to see a really small hawk nail one of my full grown hens dead on. He then nonchalantly circled around and sat on a tree watching the chicken run for its life uninjured. Must have been a lack of experience on the hawks part.

 

Funniest thing was when my rooster came running in full tilt kill mode. He would have met that hawk on the ground if he could. Still makes me laugh just to think about it.

I hear you brother.They made off with 3 Americana pullets and one pea fowl before they got to big for the hawks to carry off.My roosters just ran away..chickens that they are.

Joe

[farsider]

There have been lots of them lately. I recently saw one eating the eye of a chinny. The chinny was taking its last breaths.

 

A neat site : http://www.greatertorontohawkwatch.com/index.php

 

Cheers,

Mark

[canadadude]

Thats a coopers hawk, I've got one in the neighbourhood, it eats a least one bird a week in the winter out of my feeders. It's cool watching him grab a sparrow and eat it up in the backyard, amazing how when he's finished with it there's nothing but a pile of feathers left.

[jimmer]

It is surely a Cooper's hawk.

The last pic of it in flight really confirms it with the rounded tail.

Sharp shinned tails are sharply squared when in flight.

 

Great pictures of a not often seen hawk.

 

 

Kemper, i think you saw an osprey fishing in your story, lots one lake over in Pigeon.

 

There was a Bald Eagle nesting on Upper Buckhorn north of Gannons Narrows for a few years until the nest fell over, so it's possible that he saw an Eagle fishing.

[nofrills]

I see hawks all the time around the Warden and Lawrence area. I've also started seeing them around work, just off Ashtonbee

[MJL]

I see hawks all the time around the Warden and Lawrence area. I've also started seeing them around work, just off Ashtonbee

 

That's awesome. I hear there's a pair of Peregrine falcons which use the top of the Bell building (Ashtonbee and Pharmacy I think) as a seasonal home. I was fortunate enough to watch a peregrine falcon dive bomb a pigeon at the old Lakeview generating station before it was demolished.

[SylvanOwner]

I sent this link to the ornithologist in the office for his opinion, he's very good at what he does;

 

"1st year female Sharpie ..... but I wouldn't put more than just a few $$ on it. Head looks small, tail looks a little short and not particularly well-rounded. Hardly any white terminal band on the tail, and the legs (tarsi) look pretty skinny.

 

Cooper's are now the commoner of the two as breeding species in Toronto, but Sharpie numbers are augmented in the winter.

 

Jizz seems good for Sharp-shinned as opposed to Cooper's. (At this point I had to ask for clarification on the word jizz....lol)........It's a birder/field naturalist term for the "isness", the "essence" of the bird - that which makes it what it is. Much as you would be able to look at a fish swimming rapidly past you in a creek and simply "know" that it was a Brook Trout or whatever, without actually seeing any of the text-book features etc. Jizz is actually a combination of all the features into a general over all appearance but includes things such as behaviour and flight pattern, flight profile, etc etc."

 

So ,well done to the birders who responded.....

 

Dan

[4thgen]

I still think Cooper's. Here is a picture of a sharpie from when I was volunteering at Thunder Cape earlier in the month. It really gives you an idea of how small they are.

 

[bucktail]

Definatly a sharpshinned, lots making there way thru the GTA right now.

I see about 20 a day along the lakeshore.

[Ramble]

Chest banding, curved tail, size, banding on tail = Juv. Coopers.

[Jonny]

There was a Bald Eagle nesting on Upper Buckhorn north of Gannons Narrows for a few years until the nest fell over, so it's possible that he saw an Eagle fishing.

 

It would depend on how it hit the water when it got the fish. Osprey are often mistaken for bald eagles, though when you see them like in my avatar, they have those dark spots on the wing knuckles and eagles don't.

 

An osprey will usually hit the water hard, vertically, from a height, with quite a splash, and at least partially submerge. As far as I know an eagle wouldn't do that, but rather pick fish off while skimming the surface?

[fishinguypat]

my uncle has a pigeon shed and these hawks come down and kill the pigeons

[Whitespinnerbait]

my uncle has a pigeon shed and these hawks come down and kill the pigeons

 

 

[singingdog]

Size is the least accurate field mark for virtually all bird ID. Numerous studies have shown that even experienced birders misjudge size. Unless the bird is sitting next to something that is familiar and of a fixed sized (leaves don't count), it is incredibly difficult to tell the difference between crow-sized and pigeon-sized.

 

SylvanOwner's ornithologist friend is smart to not "put more than just a few $$ on it". Sharpies and Coopers are very difficult to ID with just a few field marks; which is all you are ever going to get from a picture. This is where "gis" comes in. An experienced observer would ID a moving Coopers/Sharpie in a couple of seconds by watching the way it moves, the way it flies, it's overall shape.....An inexperienced birder would spend 15 minutes trying to see if it has a square tail or not. Ironically, the gis would be far more accurate than any one field mark. This is apparent at hawk-watch stations, where experienced observers ID raptors very accuratly at distances where no field mark is visible.

 

The concept of "gis" is from WW1 and WW2. Civilians were trained to observe and ID aircraft, with the ultimate goal of reporting enemies in domestic airspace. GIS (some people claim it stands for "general impression and shape") Rarely could you see all the identifying marks of an aircraft, but you could assemble a good ID from flight characteristics, sound, shape and other factors.

[ehg]

Sharpies and Coopers are very difficult to ID with just a few field marks; which is all you are ever going to get from a picture.

Judging by peoples opinions on this thread, seems that conclusion can be reached.

Sharp-Shinned or Coopers Hawk?