Wow! This weekend, Eric looked out the back door and noticed this adult Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) sitting on a post in the garden.
The hawk spent quite a bit of time hunting...landing on tomato cages and walking among the plants. We're assuming it was focused on finding a songbird. Impressive to see it up close and to watch its behavior!
Here's another view:
This Cooper's Hawk is on the smaller side, so likely a male. [You can click on the images for larger versions.]
Can you please tell me what distinguishes this Cooper’s Hawk from a Sharp-Shinned Hawk? I have trouble telling the difference. Beautiful photos!
ReplyDeleteHello!
ReplyDeleteWell, it's not necessarily easy to tell them apart. And I'll admit, I've seen more Cooper's Hawks since moving to California, so I feel like I don't have a lot of recent experience with Sharp-shinned Hawks. But folks I look up to have taught me to make an i.d. based on specifics, so here's why I leaned towards Cooper's Hawk in this case:
- overall size -- although hard to tell from the photos, I'd say this bird was larger than a crow, whereas Sharp-shinneds would be smaller than a crow. Although their appearances are similar, there's apparently not much (or any) overlap in size -- e.g., Sharp-shinned total length from ~24-27" (males) and 29-34" (females) vs Cooper's total length ~37-39" (males) and 42-45" (females).
- relatively large head -- again, this can be hard to judge, but to me Sharp-shinned heads appear noticeably smaller relative to the body vs. looking robust in Cooper's
- definite contrast between the dark cap and the nape (neck). This is easy to see in the second photo -- and one of the most helpful characters on this bird. In Sharp-shinneds, the color would blend in more, i.e., there would be less separation between the crown and the nape.
- a long, rounded tail -- sometimes hard to judge in a photo, but when this bird was active, the tail was noticeably long, and rounded at the tip when folded. Sharp-shinneds would have more squared off tails.
That said, I'm also open to other opinions! Working on the coast, I don't see as many accipiters, although Cooper's Hawks are around, so I could be biased!
Thanks for asking!
:) Jackie