Hawk ID

[Dave Walz]

I was in the back yard on Sunday, trying to photograph some songbirds, when this hawk landed in a near by tree. The lighting was terrible (very back lit). I did my best to adjust the photo, but in most of the photos the hawk has a very reddish look. Hawks are a little confusing to ID. So many of them look very much alike. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Brian Barcelos]

Dave, this is a juvenile Cooper's Hawk. Good job on on bringing out the detail. Most likely he was trying to eat the little guys your taking pics of. Nice find.

[Ilija Dukovski]

The keys here are the tail pattern and the brown back (no white rump).
3 broad dark bands and very short primaries reaching only the base of the tail
suggest this is juv. Cooper's or juv Sharp-shinned.
The difference between these two is in the size,
impossible to judge from a photo.
The tail tip on the bird is round with a fairly broad white band at the end
which suggests this is Cooper's juv.

[John Chardine]

The yellow eye suggests a juv. bird.

Brian- could you explain why Coopers?

Would be useful to see the front side Dave- Coopers and Sharpys have different patterning.

[Jeff Wear]

I agree 100% with Ilija size is the tell all my guess is juv coopers

[John Chardine]

But how do you tell size from this image??

[James Prudente]

Broad white tail tip, long projection of the tail beyond the primaries and rounded tail lead me to Cooper's hawk.

Jim

[Dave Brown]

Hey Guys,

My only experience with Coopers Hawks were in Montana 5 years ago now.They are non existant in Newfoundland,though we are always looking. If I recall on perched birds the relative position of the eye creates a different facial expression on Coopers vs Sharp-shinned. I belive this is subtle and only a character to be used by those who have extensive experience with both species. Can someone comment on this.

Dave Brown

[Jeff Wear]

But how do you tell size from this image??

that was my point -size is the tell all and my Guess was coppers with only the hawk in the picture I could not tell for sure.

[John Chardine]

10-4


.

[Doug Hitchcox]

Size is always hard to judge but proportionately the head seems very large, so another vote for Coopers

[Brian Barcelos]

John, my reason for suggesting Cooper's is because of the rounded tail, heavier looking beak and Cooper's always have that more serious look on their face. Sharpies eyes also look a bit large for their smallish heads. I'm no expert and those are just my ways of sorting them out when I can't get a real good idea at size.

[Paul Lagasi]

My two cents...if it has a neck, Coopers.....no neck, Sharpie....I vote Coopers