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is this a hawk? (1 Viewer)

mick53

Member
hello,

i am brand new to this forum and this is my first post. i was very excited to pull into my driveway this afternoon to find this large bird sitting on my garage roof in west central florida (tampa).

03-30-07_1811.jpg


he or she was beautiful. it, shall we say, was about14"-18" tall, with brown wings and a white chest with brown spots. it had a hooked beak.

i stared in amazement for a long time. i tried to sneak out of the car to go inside to get my wife so she could see it but it took off.

would it sound preposterous to say the wing span was 3-4 feet? it swooped from the garage straight down until it was maybe only a foot or two of the ground. it stayed low like that, two flaps of those big wings and it was gone around a low hedge. it never made a sound. it was silent as it flew.

it came back later and went to the exact same place on the garage.

would someone pls. take an educated guess as to what type of bird this is.

hope he or she comes back. it was sooooooooo beautiful!

thank y'all very much,

mike
 
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Hi Mike, and welcome.

It is indeed some kind of hawk, but I won't hazard a guess as to the species - the answer to that will be along in a minute, I'm sure..!

;)
 
I'll guess Red-tailed because (I think) I see a hint of red in the tail. But don't think my opinion will help much.

Welcome to the forum, BTW.
 
Hi Mike,

A warm welcome to BirdForum from all the Moderators and Admin. Glad to have you on board :t:

I am afraid I can't help with the ID.
 
Sounds like a Red shouldered hawk although a Red tailed is also possible. The Red Shouldered is very common here in Tampa area and they like to sit in Low trees and perches and swoop down on lizards(and ?) in the yard. I play a lot of golf and see them in the trees along the edge of the fairways. They swoop down and grab their prey and fly back up.
Just not enough detail in photo to make a positive ID.
 
I lightened it and upped the contrast to see what happened and I've changed my mind twice since doing that. See what you think.
 

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hello again,

the picture was a rather meager effort. it was taken with a cell phone through a tinted car window at about 20 ft, not optimal conditions.

i saw the hawk again today. he was in my backyard perched on a wooden fence.i starteled it and he took off. i suspect the hawk will be back again today.

if it does come back i promise a better picture.

thanks again,

mike
 
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