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second opinion on hawk/falcon (1 Viewer)

Z

zerofourdelta

Member
G'day,
Ive recently made my back yard a paradise for small birds, lots of flowering trees, seeding plants, etc.. There are many mice and gophers and snakes etc.
Aparantly ive also made it a paradise for birds of prey, as these hawks or falcons have been hanging around for the last 6 months, Ive narrowed down the list of what they could be drastically, but id prefer a second opinion (i think they are coopers hawks, but not 100%). Sorry about the resolution, need to get a new camera.
Oh i live in San Diego, east county.
 

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San Diego, California? If so, Cooper's or Sharp-shinned Hawks, hard to be sure which from the photos
 
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thanks for the quick reply

yeah san diego california, i really need to get a good camera, thats the best quality my old camera can manage unfortunately.
I'm guessing they are all juveniles, none of them have developed reddish eyes yet, so they are proberbly from the same nest. I have witnessed three of them team up to attack a crow twice their size close to that tree, some sort of turf war is going on out there between the crows and hawks!
 
If the crow is twice their size they are likely Sharp-shins---unless they are all small male Coopers.:h?: And Sharpies are notoriously feisty.

Bob
 
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My guess is that they're Cooper's hawks, but I wouldn't be too surprised if they weren't (the heads do look rather dinky = sharp-shinned). And as roundedness goes for Cooper's hawks' tail-tips, none of these are (visibly) particularly rounded. I don't actually see a definitive ID feature on any bird here, so I doubt that it's wise to be definite from these photos.
 
Re tailed roundedness: as has often been pointed out both Cooper’s Hawk & Sharp-shinned tails can look rounded under various conditions & what matters is the relative length of the outer tail feathers: if noticeably shorter than the inner feathers, the bird is a Cooper’s, if not, it’s a Sharpie. IMO none of the photos shows the tail clearly enough for a judgment to be made on this point.
 
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Exactly so. In fact even sharp-shinned hawks can have the difference as great as 'noticeably shorter'; one has to go more for 'substantially shorter' to nail Cooper's on that feature.
 
Sharp-shinned Hawks do not breed in southern California, except in the high-mountain brushlands and forest. And in the high-mountain area they are tagged "lucky to find" (as far as probability of seeing one) for the May through August period. In the rest of southern California, the species is absent from mid-May through mid-August.

Source: Brad Schram, A Birder's Guide to Southern California, 1998 edition, p. 291. Unfortunately there is no abundance information for that species in this book.
 
Sorry I did not read all the post. The first pic is not a sharpie. Leg's are much too stout. Also the tail looks good for Cooper's. Other photos I can't tell anything.

Good birding.

EDIT: aslo the darker crown is very good for Cooper's. Someone said the leg width is useless. In fact on a perched bird it's the best mark their is, the only one that is subject only to how good a look you get. All the other marks are subject to individual variation and normal wear.
 
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Sharp-shinned Hawk:
"...uncommon winter visitor to SD County."
"...returns to SD County usually in the middle of September..."
"...after the first week of April it is rare."
"...latest reliable date...28 April..."
Source: Unitt, San Diego County Bird Atlas
 
Zerofourdelta,
If you have been seeing them for 6 months you may have heard their calls? Their vocalizations are different. A Coopers is a nasal kek kek kek or something like that whereas a Sharp-shins call is a high pitched kee.

Bob
 
fugl said:
Re tailed roundedness: as has often been pointed out both Cooper’s Hawk & Sharp-shinned tails can look rounded under various conditions & what matters is the relative length of the outer tail feathers: if noticeably shorter than the inner feathers, the bird is a Cooper’s, if not, it’s a Sharpie. IMO none of the photos shows the tail clearly enough for a judgment to be made on this point.
Click to expand...

When I looked at the image before answering I felt I could see enough of the outer tail feathers. Reading the different responses, I went back and can see where you come from.

Niels
 
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