Ok Beth, mom and i looked up your hawk in per Peterson's Field Guide (for Eastern Birds). We considered that your bird could be fairly young... and just changing to adult plumage. their colors are more distinct when mature. But, as it was, eye and head markings that would distinct even early on excluded a lot of other birds.

Ultimately we decided your bird was an Accipiter or True Hawk family, belonging to of one of two species which are very hard to tell apart by shape and coloration:

We believe it is either a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

The main visual difference between these two is the the tail shape - Cooper's is rounded while Sharp-shinned is rectangular. However there is a significant difference in habitat.

The Cooper's Hawk is mapped as a year-round residents in your area, while the Sharp-shinned Hawk only migrates there for the winter ... which is now well and gone. The book also indicated that the Sharp-shinned has receded in breeding territory upwards towards Canada.

As far as the tail distinction, it was hard to tell from the photo. it seemed more rectangular to me but he was spreading it out in one photo, so it could have been a spread/rounded tail. Also the book itself notes specifically that coloring and tail shapes of the two species can be so similar in the field as to render positive identification/distinction impossible!



So, bearing all that in mind, the tentative identification here, consistent with shape and coloring, and probabilistically based on distinguishing habitat is:

Cooper's Hawk.

~ waves ~

thank you waves, I have heard that they are common here so I bet you are right on the money! thank you for researching this....he was majestic!
beth

Beth,

thanks for the feedback...

it was fun trying to figure it out. Mom got a kick out of it especially. She used to love observing and listening to and looking up birds when we lived that side of the ocean. She got out another bird book too to cross-check the habitats, but Peterson's was the most helpful in every aspect. His field guides are phenomenal.

As for your Hawk s/he certainly was majestic looking. i'm sure one had to "be there" to fully appreciate though.

take care

~ waves ~

goshawk or juvenile red tail is what jeffs friend thought, he jsut told me this just now.
ask your mom what she thinks of that?
thanks sweetie.
beth
edited to add it did not look like a goshawk in the photos on line.

those both sound familiar... we looked at a lot of birds, and the guide includes pix of juvenile birds/plumage.

i believe we excluded both of those for one reason or another. i will have to check the book to verify the reason though... but i have to go to dinner now. i'll be back...

~ waves ~

Is there a link to the picture? I love birds!
Oh it sounds intriging!
Di

Hi, Di,
Here is is.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...442#post520442

M.