I was sitting here in my room. Looked out the window saw this large bird fly into view. Sat a minute, grabbed camera and hurried outside. This guy sat on the wires long enough for me to get a frontal view and several shots. I was not prepared when he flew to the next yard so I missed the in flight shot.

Cloudy skies and I didn't care there is no details in the sky.

[vievetrick]

Nice shoots I would boost up the contrast on them. Very cool looking hawk whatever kind he is.

[photolady95]

Yeah, I thought about adjusting contrast. Might still before printing them. Thanks for the compliment.

[Workingdog]

Could also be a sharp-shinned hawk. Very hard to tell the difference between a sharpie and Cooper's unless they're side by side.

[daacon]

Sweet shot right place right time.

[photolady95]

Workingdog, according to Cornell's book all about birds, this is a cooper's hawk. The Sharp-Shinned is sort of gold brown on it's belly:

Sharp-shinned Hawk, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Thanks Dave.

I was on the phone to my brother when I saw him fly by. All I said was "hawk in yard, bye!" and I hung up.

[PentX Girl]

Yep...looks like a Cooper to me. Way to go...they are tough to get

[photolady95]

Thanks Jan. This guy acted almost tame. I got within 100 Ft. of him and he stayed on that wire for nearly a half hour.

I was wearing dark clothes and I was barefoot. Maybe he just didn't see or hear me.

[Sailor]

Very nice - there's an unusal pastel look to the images, something I don't normally associate with bird shots. A bit of a constrast bump would be an interesing experiment to see what it does - costs nothin', after all.

Jer

[photolady95]

Thanks Jer.

Here they are with a bit of contrast added:

[Workingdog]

See Petermgr's Sharp Shinned Hawk post. Looks a lot like your bird. They are tough to ID unless you're really good or they'r together. There are color variations; for instance the back and wings are usually more gray/blue.

Workingdog, according to Cornell's book all about birds, this is a cooper's hawk. The Sharp-Shinned is sort of gold brown on it's belly:

Sharp-shinned Hawk, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Thanks Dave.

I was on the phone to my brother when I saw him fly by. All I said was "hawk in yard, bye!" and I hung up.

[photolady95]

According to Cornell, the Cooper's Hawk has a larger head. I looked at the one Peter posted and it looks just like mine but it's head was on the large size too. Yes, I agree birds like these are hard to identify if all you go by is the color of the feathers, you need to take into account the overall body.

[Petermgr]

According to Cornell, the Cooper's Hawk has a larger head. I looked at the one Peter posted and it looks just like mine but it's head was on the large size too. Yes, I agree birds like these are hard to identify if all you go by is the color of the feathers, you need to take into account the overall body.

Hi photolady,

It does look somewhat like mine, but the claws looker thicker, which is one difference the Cooper Hawk has over the Sharp-shinned Hawk. The Sharp-shinned Hawk also has the squared tail with the dark bars. The Cooper Hawk has a rounded tail (re iBird Explorer). When I get a chance to talk to my son-in-law (he's a biologist) I'll bounce this off him.


Peter

[cupic]

Always love to see birds especially ones as majestic as these are TFS


cheers

[photolady95]

I guess we'll have to wait on ID confirmation eh?

Thanks cupic. And you're welcome. I love sharing my photos when they come out this good. Only wish he'd been on a tree limb and not "hand of man" wires.