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Message: <blockquote data-quote="StuartReeves" data-source="post: 1324547" data-attributes="member: 12155">To try and bring this thread to a conclusion, looking through my other photos from that trip, I was struck by how this bird is identical, plumage-wise to various in-flight photos I have of obvious Sharpies. Thus, while the consensus here seems to be that this bird looks like a Coopers on structure, the plumage evidence seems to point towards Sharpy. Given the difficulty in judging structure of a Bird of prey from a single flight photo, I started to lean towards this bird being a Sharpy. I have also had some correspondence with BF member and Nova Scotia bird records commitee member Richard Stern. He was kind enough to circulate the photo to a couple of other birders with extensive experience of distinguishing Coopers from Sharpy. The feedback was as follows: On balance, it seems that this bird is a Sharpy, albeit a rather instructive one!Thanks again for all the discussion,Stuart</blockquote>