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ID Help: Cooper's Hawk
birdcamfan:
Thanks Dennis. Now I'm sure that's what I saw. These are great pictures, much better than the one's I pulled up off the net! She fanned open her striped tail just like in your photos. It's very distinctive. Thank you for sharing these and all the help that you and TPC have supplied to aid in this identification. It will be very exciting if they decide to spend the summer in our neighborhood.
photosbydennis:
--- Quote from: The Peregrine Chick on April 10, 2009, 15:06 --- Cooper's Hawks. Did you happen to see the colour of it's eyes? Young Cooper's have yellow eyes, adults have red/orange - very cool actually.
--- End quote ---
Birdcamfan, maybe this link will help you ID the bird.
http://www.pbase.com/photosbydennis/coopers_hawk
birdcamfan:
Would have loved one of Dennis's lenses to see eye colour as well to see the markings on the head. My binocs are not quite up there (time to reinvest). From what you say, my bets are on a Coopers. I have been cooking Paska, beet pickle, perogies, cabbage rolls etc all day watching out the back door to see if there was a return. No luck! I'll keep you posted if they become regular visitors. Thanks for everyone's input.
The Peregrine Chick:
Great question! Without a photo I can't be sure but I'll make an educated guess and say that it is probably a Cooper's Hawk. Cooper's are 15-20 inches compared with 9-12 of the merlins but they look much bigger to my eye and they do have a clearly visible banded (striped) tail as well as a speckled breast (some more/darker, some less). If the bird were closer to the size of a merlin, I would have said sharp-shinned hawk as they are almost identical to Coopers. There are alot of Coopers nesting in the city over the last couple of years - had 8 calls last year about peregrine falcons (too big for merlins) nesting in trees, only to find happy & healthy Cooper's Hawks. Did you happen to see the colour of it's eyes? Young Cooper's have yellow eyes, adults have red/orange - very cool actually. And yes, they build nests and they like large deciduous trees for their nests.
Northern Goshawks are even larger - actually they are classified as large hawks - and though there are bands on their tail, they are very indistinct, i.e., you mostly don't see them. Prairie Falcons, although we like to think of ourselves as prairie, from the Prairie Falcon's perspective, we really aren't. We get may two sightings a year and since they live/hunt/breed in open areas (dry grasslands and prairies, locally alpine tundra) not in urban/suburban areas, the likelihood of seeing one is actually pretty slim even during migration.
photosbydennis:
You could also throw in a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Being close to the river...very possible a Coopers.
Could also just be passing through ??
Sharp-shinned about 10-14in. square tail
Cooper's about 14-20in. rounded tail
Goshawk about 21-26in.
All three birds look much alike.
Don't know if this helps any.
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