Bird of prey

[NAC]

Anyone know what this is? Hawk? Coopers?

 

[ehg]

Cooper's or Sharp-Shinned? Seen the identification threads for them here many times before.

If that bird was bigger than a crow it could be a Northern Goshawk,

looks a little bigger than a Cooper's. It is a female hawk for sure.

Edited May 10, 2009 by ehg

[pikeie]

That is a sharp-shinned hawk in my opinion ( ive seen 100's of these). the give away is the longer tail. i could confirm it if you had a tape measure next to it . the sharpies are a little bit bigger then the coopers. the sharp shinned hawks can grow to a height of 14 inches +/-. and the coopers grow 10-12 inches.

[Grimace]

It is the other way around pikie the Cooper's is a bit bigger than the Sharpy. I cannot tell what that one is.

[bucktail]

Sure looks like a Sharp Shinned to me.

[pikeie]

oopps sorry i mixed that up... thats what i ment haha

[4thgen]

Definately a Cooper's or a sharpie. It's hard to tell which without anything to compare size. The Cooper's is slightly larger but there is overlap (ie a large female sharpie compared to a small male Cooper's). The Cooper's hawk also has a slightly rounded tail when it isn't spread -- compared to the squared tail of the sharpie.

I honestly go by size more than anything.

 

That's a nice picture -- we have some migrants up here but not much yet.

As far as birds of prey, I've seen a couple of broad-winged hawks, harriers, kestrels and about a dozen bald eagles over the last week.

[Remo]

Could even be a broad winged hawk.....I get them in the back yard during the spring and fall migration....and the sharp shinned that usally hunts my bird feeders is now where to be found.

Edited May 11, 2009 by Remo

[ehg]

After looking at this again the pine needles give some size to compare too.

Makes the bird smaller than i originally thought so i'll go with sharp-shinned judging by size.

[Whitespinnerbait]

100% positive its a juvenile cooper's hawk....

[NAC]

I would guess it was 14-16" from feet to head and yes had a very long tail.

I was about 10yds away using all the zoom I had from inside my house. It caught my attention when I saw a squirrel freaking out and trying to scare it away of all things... that's why its head is cocked, because the squirrel kept charging dwon the branch at it.

The squirrel won!