Request help with hawk ID (2 Viewers)

Saturday (Dec. 20) a little after 5 p.m., I went out to sit on my deck (in Knoxville,Tennessee) to see if any birds were around. All was quiet. After about 5 minutes a loud fluttering of wings caused me to look up in time to see the blurred form of a large bird go by and alight in the pine some 15-20 feet away. The hawk perched facing me and stayed for 5-10 minutes, scanning the ground for a potential dinner before suddenly taking off again, making a quick 180 and flying out through the small thicket, so that the only decent look I had of the bird was of it perching.

I initially thought it was a red-shouldered hawk but I have some doubts. Its breast was heavily barred in the most beautiful rich shade of red. The top of the shoulders looked to be solid red. Its tail was striped. The only thing that causes me to doubt is the tail. It had more white on it than I would expect of a red-shouldered hawk. The black and white stripes appeared to be about even in width. Its tail looked more like a Cooper’s hawk though I can’t recall if it was rounded or straight at the edges. I have looked at numerous photographs of both varieties on the internet and in none of them was the barring on the breast of a Cooper’s hawk the rich shade of red as on the one I saw. The photographs in my Sibley’s, however, do show the Cooper’s hawk to be that color. Of course, my Sibley’s also contains a lot of blue gulls so I’m thinking maybe the colors in the book aren’t all that accurate as I’ve yet to see a blue gull in the wild.

Although I hadn't noticed them before, when the hawk took off, several mourning doves that had been roosting in the trees hurriedly took off in the opposite direction.

I didn’t have my camera handy, only my binoculars, so no photo unfortunately.

Any thoughts?

Being the wrong side of the Atlantic, I'm not really quaified to comment on the tail, but I would have thought that a combination of barred tail and red scapulars (shoulders) is pretty diagnostic of Red-shouldered Hawk.


Jason

Yes, I think you've pretty much named your options, BN, Red-shouldered or Cooper's Hawk, both roughly the same size, both with red barring under and banded tail. I perceive the gulls in my copy of Sibley as more grey than blue-- at least, close enough to the real thing-- and the Cooper's colour is about right too, I think.

The flight interests me. If it lit in the tree relatively close to the bole, remained unmoving except for its head, and suddenly flew out in direct flight-- especially through a 'thicket'-- I think that strongly resembles accipiter behaviour.

Thank you, Charles. Those are good thoughts and now I'm thinking that it was a Coopers after all. That dense red barring up near the shoulders had me about convinced that it was a red shouldered. Whatever it was, it was a stunningly beautiful hawk and I was thrilled to have seen it up so close.

Bird Nut said:

Thank you, Charles. Those are good thoughts and now I'm thinking that it was a Coopers after all. That dense red barring up near the shoulders had me about convinced that it was a red shouldered. Whatever it was, it was a stunningly beautiful hawk and I was thrilled to have seen it up so close.

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sounds like an accip. (thickets/and flight) also coops more likely to take doves than RSH.

sometimes the adult coops/sharps have a rufus/orange upper body color.