common_nature | Cooper's Hawk?

Entry tags:

bird: hawk

Cooper's Hawk?

Mike and I were wondering why there were no little birdies at the food plate one morning, but a look at the nearby tree explained it quickly! The top photo is a close up of its head, the second of the whole body in the tree.

We think it might be a Cooper's Hawk, which is what the bird at the bottom is (I took that some years ago). The bird did seem smaller than the Cooper's, which we've seen on a number of occasions and gets fairly good sized. When it flew away the wing span seemed larger compared to its body as well. But maybe it's a juvenile.

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Looks like Cooper's Hawk but smaller is a common description of a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Sharp-shinned and Cooper's are both accipiters, which hunt in forests, and have shorter wings than raptors who soar over prairies.

Juvenile accipiters have yellow eyes, which darken to orange or even red as they become adults. The bird you photographed recently looks to have orange eyes.

I'm going to guess Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Good to know, thanks!

My friend pointed out that there is a lot of overlap in size between Cooper's and Sharp-shinned, because in many species female raptors are noticeably bigger than males. So, you could have a breeding pair of Cooper's Hawks there.