Portales, NM 3/4/15 (1 Viewer)

I was doing some birding through my back window when all my finches and juncos took off really fast. This guy literally jumped over the 3 foot fence and landed on my dog house. As I went reaching for a camera, it jumped over the fence again. I wen outside and scared it from the back field and flew to this 8 foot fence in the picture, then jumped down to my neighbors yard. It seems to spend a lot of time on the ground if it can. Any suggestions? I think Prairie Falcon, Cooper's Hawk, maybe even a Merlin? There seems not to be a definitive match in my bird book.

Cooper's.

Sharp-shinned is similar, but slightly smaller, and has all the tail feathers even length, not with the outer feathers marginally shorter as in your pic.

I'm thinking Sharp-Shinned from the tail...the tail feathers all look quite close in length. Hard to be sure, though. A front view would be helpful.

logan3m: falcons (such as Prairie Falcon and Merlin) always have dark eyes, not yellow as in this bird. They are also a lot less likely to show up in your back yard

Sharpie for me, small-headed, big-eyed & small looking (relative to the fence palings) overall.

Sharpie for me, too. Tail feathers appear as evenly lengthed as expected, not as graduated as in a Coop. In addition to other comments above.