What kind of hawk?

[Hastings gal]

I think its either a sharp shinned or cooper juvenielle?

This is what I witnessed 2 weeks ago between downpoors. Every species of bird around was squawking and dive bombing this guy. I took 8 pictures of it.

[bmc]

From looking at my bird book, "Birds of Minnesota" Field Guide by Stan Tekiela, I believe it's a sharp-shinned hawk. The juvenile cooper's hawk has a almost completely brown head. But I am by no means an expert, so I hope someone else will chime in so I know if I'm right. LOL

Brian

[Steve Foss]

Accipters nearly overlap in size, and females are larger than males. This makes identification very difficult, especially between immature birds. With adults, it's easy to tell when you've got a goshawk, for example, but the other two adults are too close together in too many ways to make it easy. The immatures resemble each other closely in all three species (sharp-shinned, Cooper's and goshawk). And with the size issue, I generally call the smallest individuals sharp-shinneds with the possiblity of Cooper's, and largest ones goshawks with the possibility of Cooper's. I've never been confident enough, or actually, been close enough and gotten a long enough look at, these birds to be sure of an ID closer than that. There are field marks to tell each apart, but they are subtle. I've found a couple dead adult accipiters and was able to make what I consider positive IDs because I had all the time in the world. In the field, I often just flip my pencil in the air and call it an accipiter.

[buzzsaw]

I believe you can tell the difference between a sharp shinned and a Coopers by the tail. Do you have a picture of it from the rear?

[Steve Foss]

That's a good field mark. Another is that sharp-shinneds tend to have more rounded heads and Cooper's squarer across the top back. And, in immature birds, ss tends to have a more pronounced white eye line, while C has less. Subtle, but if you can get all three and get a good read on size (very hard in the field), you can ID with some confidence.

Can't see the tail in the bird in the shot, as buzz mentioned, but the eye line is pronounced and the head doesn't look too square. If the dead bird in the accipiter's talons is a starling or a black/white woodpecker like a downy or hairy, my guess would be sharp-shinned, based on those two field marks and its relative size tto the prey species. But, shucks, I wouldn't put it down positively in a Big Day bird list based on that. I'm just not sure enough about them. Most bird species also show some plumage variation among individuals, as well.

Peterson's has a Hawks field guide special to raptors, which I have been referring to, and it's a good one to have and not too much $.

[M.T. Bucket]

I'm also going to say Sharp-shinned Hawk. I think the tail looks more squared off and typically Cooper's Hawks have a wider white band at the tip of the tail, and this bird hardly shows any white on the tip.

As for the size issue, juvenile raptors are a little larger than their parents. Compared with the prey, the question seems to be if this is a large SS or a small C. A juvenile C wouldn't be a small C, it would be nearly goshawk-sized.

Accipiters are soooo hard to tell apart in the field.

[Jackpine Rob]

Yep, much easier to identify when they are in flight and the wings are doing their thing. The sharp shin has a very distinctive pattern of beat/beat/gliiiiide, and in tight quarters a goshawk does amazing aerobatics, seemingly defying the laws of physics. Sitting on a branch or on the ground, a guy kinda scratches his head and goes "hey! look at the hawk!"

Since I'm a most agreeable sort, I will concur with the consensus opinion and label this a sharp-shinned hawk.

[Hastings gal]

Thank you for your help.

Here is another picture of it showing the tail

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And one showing the side view

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[buzzsaw]

That red bellied woodpecker is so hosed! That Hawk is starring him down just ready to tear em' apart.

[Steve Foss]

Yeah, I gotta say it looks like a sharp-shinned still.

And M.T. Bucket, thanks for the reminder about those oversize juvies. Forgot about that one.

So, for round two, what's the prey species? Female red bellied woodpecker is my guess. The last two pics Hastings gal sent seem pretty clear.

[Steve Foss]

Whoops, looks like buzz got 'er in there a minute before I did.

[buzzsaw]

Were on the same page catfish!