Hawk, Thousand Oaks, CA, USA (1 Viewer)

Could this be a juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk? This was the only photo I was able to get before it flew off.
Thanks,
Bob

Looks more like a Cooper's Hawk to me.

Hi Bob.

The short wings, falling approx. half way down the broadly dark banded tail, creating a long tailed impression belongs to an Accipiter. A Buteo (Red-shouldered, Red-tailed Hawk among several Buteo species has longer wings almost, or nearly reaching tail tip and with a different structure, compared to Accipiters which are slimmer in body shape.
Question is whether Cooper´s or Sharp-shinned, since they are quite similar and we only get t see it from behind, but the rather wide white tips on the tail with a shorter outer tail feather visble (Sharp-shinned has a squarish tal tip where all fetahers are approx. the same lenght and with narrower white tips to the tail) I would suggest a juvenile Cooper´s Hawk.

http://www.geocities.com/tgrey41/Pages/CoopersHawkp.html

Compare:

http://flickr.com/photos/mountainpath/59208788

JanJ

I agree with a young Coop based on seemingly graduated rectrices. Additionally (and perhaps superfluously), to preemptively squash any thoughts of goshawk, I'll note that despite R1(?) (the middle rectrix) seeming to be out-of-sync with the horizontal tail bars of other feathers, I think that's just the wind's work.

I agree with sub-adult Cooper's Hawk. Incidentally, the area where this bird was seen is outside of the breeding range of Sharp-shinned Hawk, and outside of the normal range of Northern Goshawk.

Best,
Jim

Here is an interesting fact from Wheeler's Raptors of Eastern North America At page 174. HABITS................................"Cooper's Hawk is the only accipiter to perch on telephone poles..........." Italics are by the author.
Bob

ceasar said:

Here is an interesting fact from Wheeler's Raptors of Eastern North America At page 174. HABITS................................"Cooper's Hawk is the only accipiter to perch on telephone poles..........." Italics are by the author.
Bob

Click to expand...

Sibley's has a similar statement: "Although habits and habitat overlap entirely, Cooper's often perches on fence posts or poles, as well as tree branches, while Sharp-shinned almost always perches on tree branches."

The initial clause in Sibley's seems to conflict with the more absolute statement in Wheeler though. Though Wheeler's claim is even narrower -- limited to telephone poles. Looking on photos over the Internet, I did find birds identified as Sharp-shinned Hawks that were perched on fence posts, though not telephone poles. But I did find a photo of a Northern Goshawk (apparently an illiterate one that had not read Wheelers) perched on what appears to be a telephone pole: http://wildbirdsunlimited.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/11/goshawk_p1140379.jpg
So Wheeler seems to be wrong on the "only accipiter" part of it at least.

Best,
Jim

Thank you everyone for the ID.
Right before I took the photo it flew by me maybe 20-30 feet away. Looking at the photos of Cooper's hawks that is difinitely what it is.
Again, thanks everyone.
Bob

J. Moore said:

.......... Looking on photos over the Internet, I did find birds identified as Sharp-shinned Hawks that were perched on fence posts, though not telephone poles. But I did find a photo of a Northern Goshawk (apparently an illiterate one that had not read Wheelers) perched on what appears to be a telephone pole: http://wildbirdsunlimited.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/11/goshawk_p1140379.jpg
So Wheeler seems to be wrong on the "only accipiter" part of it at least.

Best,
Jim

Click to expand...

Wheeler has a statement about Goshawks too. Again, it is under HABITS at page 186. And again in italics. "....Concealed branches are preferred perches. Goshawks do not perch on posts and utility poles along well-traveled roadways." Personally, I have seen them perched, both in trees along field edges (mostly, not far from a road) and on occasion on poles along roadways that weren't heavily traveled. So I guess he covered himself here. His statement about the habits of Sharp-shinned Hawks and telephone poles at page 162 is brief: "Sharp-shinned Hawks do not perch on telephone poles." Although he states that they perch occasionally on wires and posts.

BTW, his book is now available in paperback for (if my memory is correct) $19.95. I saw it in my local Barnes & Noble. ISBN from my hard cover edition is: 0-691-11598-2. It has many, many photos, but no illustrations except for range maps. To say that it is highly technical, extremely detailed and copiously researched is to make an understatement. It is quite compact for a book with 439 pages. It has a 9 page bibliography. It also has a 27 page, 5 section glossary in the front of the book. It's worth looking over.

Cordially,
Bob

PS: For those living in Western USA, there is a western edition.