ID Help: Cooper's Hawk

[The Peregrine Chick]

This is the blurry male. He was pretty big.
Just notice the brave Robin on the shed.
Still not a good picture of the tail.

This image is of a juvenile

I'm still on the fence about the species - the head on the adult is small relative to the body which makes me think its a Sharpie, but the head on the juvenile looks larger and the white at the tail tip is quite broad and visible which could make it a Coopers.

You had both at the same time?  or about the same time?  If so, then I think I would say Cooper's Hawks ....

not as definitive as you would like I'm sorry ...

[The Peregrine Chick]

Here's another one, not much better. Can't see the tail.
 I would say she was over a foot high.



Tracy would this be a juvenile or an adult?

This is an adult

[Doreen]

This is the blurry male. He was pretty big.
Just notice the brave Robin on the shed.
Still not a good picture of the tail.

[Doreen]

Here's another one, not much better. Can't see the tail.
 I would say she was over a foot high.



Tracy would this be a juvenile or an adult?

[The Peregrine Chick]

I'm no expert, but it looks like a Cooper's Hawk to me.  

Cooper's Hawk
Red eye, Slate gray back, dark gray "cap", Long, thin, rounded, banded tail

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/coopers_hawk/id

Depends on the size and tail shape.  Adult Coopers and adult Sharp-shinned look the same except that Sharpies are smaller and the tail has a flat/straight terminal end.  Can't see the tip of the tail and can't tell the relative size of the bird so it could be either a Coopers as RCF thinks or it could be a Sharpie.  Sorry I can't be more help than that.  And yes, they both eat birds so that's no help either  

[RCF]

I'm no expert, but it looks like a Cooper's Hawk to me.  

Cooper's Hawk
Red eye, Slate gray back, dark gray "cap", Long, thin, rounded, banded tail

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/coopers_hawk/id

[Doreen]

Tracy I didn't know where to put this.
She was sitting there when I came home today.
There was a male but I didn't get a good picture of him.
What kind of bird is this?
I have a big feeder in the back with lots and lots of house sparrow.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Heard back from Praire Wildlife and they haven't received any admissions that would fit the bill so we'll have to wait until Tuesday to hear what the pest control company reports.  Hopefully it will be a case of no news is good news.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Thanks Leana, your photos were good thank you.  I could tell it wasn't a falcon but that left three similar species - one of which I was pretty sure was too large.  The three are sharp-shinned, Coopers and Northern Goshawk. 

The Goshawk is large, so even though there isn't an easy reference, the bird looked too small and too white on the belly.  And the tail end is rounded - Goshawks have very square/flat ended tails. 

Sharp-shinned also have squarish tails but the body plumage is more along the lines of Leana's bird but sharpies tend to have a kind of blurred streaking on their breasts.  Sharpies have yellow eyes as kids but they aren't the only ones.

My thought is that this is a juvenile Cooper's Hawk based on the size as best as I can estimate, the rounded tail with the white terminal band and the clearly streaked breast markings.  Like Sharpies, Coopers too have yellow eyes as juveniles.

Wildlife Haven reports that they haven't received any birds from New Flyer yesterday or today.  Will keep you updated.

[Leana]

I emailed you the photos Tracy.  Hope you can zoom in on them, the lighting was poor which makes them poor quality to start with.

One of the warehouse guys told me they'd called you but I wasn't sure if he has all this facts right.  LOL.  Glad to hear they did call you.

I hope you hear what happened.  Keep us posted!

[eagle63_1999]

I looked at the photos and from my guess I would say it is a Northern Goshawk.....

[The Peregrine Chick]

Leana, can you please email me the original photos or the direct link to the photos in your photobucket account?  If I can zoom in a bit better I might be able to answer your question.

I too was called by New Flyer yesterday and we had the same kind of conversation, if the bird is flying, even injured and flying 25' up, there is no way I can catch them.  I do know that one of the pest control companies was going to go by after work and see if they could catch them with a net launcher they use for other creatures.  I did offer to join the technician but I didn't hear back from him.  Might have just been too busy a day for a return phone call or he may have had the situation well in-hand.

I already have requests for information from both wildlife rehab organizations and the pest control company that was called and if I hear anything, I will post it here.

[Leana]

I work at New Flyer in Transcona, where we had a bit of feathered excitement today.  The husband of a coworker works in the warehouse.  He came in a told her there was a pair of "falcons" in the warehouse and that one of them had flown into a circulating fan up on the ceiling and hurt it's leg.  Of course I had to hurry out to see if it could be a peregrine, although I knew in the back of my mind it was highly unlikely.  We located the poor thing near the back of the warehouse (meaning as far away from the big open door as possible), sitting up high on one of pipes.  It was hard to get a clear view, because it was pretty high up, but I knew right away I wasn't looking at a peregrine, but it did look like it might be a relative of sorts.  Anyhoo... I had another coworker take some pictures which I've attached below.  They aren't the greatest since the little devil just had to be sitting directly next to a halogen light fixture! 

Question to all you bird gurus... can you identify what kind of bird it is?

My husband believes it might be a Sparrow Hawk.

Now the sad part of the story.  I called the Widlife Haven and they said there is nothing they can do for a bird who is still flying because they are next to impossible to catch.  The guys who work in the warehouse said its leg was pretty damaged. But it was still flying around from pipe to pipe up high in the warehouse.  There was no sign of the second one today so it either flew into the main plaint (I HOPE NOT!) or got out the door at some point.  I feel terrible, especially with it being a long weekend and all.  Not sure if anyone is working there tomorrow (it's possible), but if he doesn't find a way out of the building the poor guy is doomed.

Here are the photos, quality is poor due to the lighting and distance.

   

[birdcamfan]

I only saw the Cooper's in our neighborhood one other time after this sighting. Moved on to greener pastures I guess. Our usual Merlins aren't around this year either although they were here in the winter and early spring. It's funny how the resident population changes from year to year. Some years we have had lots of Jays, the Merlins were around for a number of years, other years Woodpeckers, this year a lot of Gold finches. Does anyone have any ideas why that would be?

[pmg]

Thanks for the info on the Coopers Hawk. It explains why my resident Merlins suddenly looked like they were on steroids. The Coopers have left and the normal sized Merlins are still here...nesting in the neighbors spruce, while a pair of blue jays are nesting in our oak. Makes for some exciting times in the neighborhood! We haven't had squirrels in the yard since the jays started chasing them away from their nest