Cooper's hawk Accipiter cooperii

SELF | Jan 20,2009 | swampsniper

[SWAMPSNIPER]

This is how I spent my day, too pretty to watch anything on TV!

This is an immature bird, I'm only 90% on the ID, several of the hawks have similar young.

I got through a whole day without being busted by a rentacop!

[Jemian]

Thank you, thank you. That hawk is a beauty.

[Jimmy Valentine]

You found the Maltese Falcon!!!

Beautiful bird.

[bperiwinkle7]

I am watchful for my pet Mockingbird. She is here for the 3rd winter of feeding. I chop cherries and raisins up for her a few times a day and she comes when I call her with the clicking call that Mockingbirds make when they aren’t singing everybody else’s song. It is very special to me.

I also have scores of gold and purple and house finches as well as 4 kinds of woodpeckers, Carolina wrens, chickadees and on and on. When we had a bad cold snap recently, they went through 25# of seed in 48 hours!!!!!

[sunny48]

What a beautiful bird. Thanks

[grellis]

I love Coopers! Just fed ours a couple of sparrows this morning.

[rustbucket]

Here is part of the aerial battle between the Harris hawks and the Cooper's. Taken with a Canon EOS 20D with a 400 mm Canon zoom lens. Sorry about the fuzziness of the picture. They were far away and moving fast. This is a crop from the original photo.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

The Cooper’s definitely isn’t loved by other birds.

[Bigg Red]

Thanks.

[gardengirl]

Beautiful, Swampy! No blue skies for us yest or today. 3” of snow and below freezing temps today. Very unusual for us—about one every ten years.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Our well pump froze last night, didn’t get the pipes flowing until 10 AM.
I’m changing the hawk ID based on several expert opinions. It is most likely a young Red-shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus. ID is tricky with immature birds.