I saw a post the other day here that I thought was a Red-shouldered hawk but turned out to be a Northern Harrier (located in Northern Utah). I live in Orange County, Southern California and I came downstairs one morning to find this beauty sitting on my back fence. To those who would know, is this a RS hawk or NH?
I know the picture is nothing special other than a portrait of this beautiful bird.
Nikon D70, Tamron 28-300 @ 270mm, 1/125 sec at f/11, -0.3EV, ISO 200, Auto WB.
Kirk
I believe that your hawk is either a Sharp-shinned Hawk or a Cooper's Hawk. I've only seen Cooper's Hawks so I'm not sure which but based on the coarse markings I'd guess a Sharp-shinned since I can't judge size from the image. A Cooper's hawk is about 16.5 inches and a Sharp-shinned Hawk is about 11 inches. I don't have great ID skills with the raptors. The Coopers' Hawks around where I live like to hang out around feeders to get the little birds. You have a nice image of this guy looking for breakfast.