A fluffy Sharp-Shinned Hawk. 🗡️
[Edit no. 2: WRONG. This is a Cooper's Hawk. I'm leaning on @hawkpartys' expertise here: "This is a Cooper's Hawk. See pale nape, dark cap, thick tarsi, graduated tail feathers, and large white undertail coverts."
While I based my ID on size compared to another nearby hawk, maybe this is just a small individual. To quote the National Audubon Society, and to reassure myself, "Lots of birders—expert birders—have come away shaking their heads and jotting down “Cooper’s/Sharp-shinned” in their notebooks."]
photos by me, 2024-03-13, Whitsett Park, Nashville, TN.
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Virginia Wildlife; vol. 18, no. 8. August, 1957.
Internet Archive
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My Kingdom.
This hawk was in an oak tree outside my backyard fence this morning. I tried taking a photo through the storm door because it was raining. But some leaves were covering the head of the hawk, so I made a hasty waterproof cover for my camera and went out into the rain to get some photos. I think that this is a Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii) based on its size, but it could be a sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus). I'm basically guessing between the two they look so much alike.
Among the bird world’s most skillful fliers, Cooper’s Hawks are common woodland hawks that tear through cluttered tree canopies in high-speed pursuit of other birds. … With their smaller lookalike, the Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper’s Hawks make for famously tricky identifications. Both species are sometimes unwanted guests at bird feeders, looking for an easy meal (but not one of sunflower seeds).
@birdcounter
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[2672/11080] Cooper's hawk - Accipiter cooperii
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae
Photo credit: Anne-Marie Dufour via Macaulay Library
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A big bird?
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Happy Friday!
Here's a Cooper's Hawk in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 6
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Twin Hawks
Cooper’s hawks
COURTESY STEVE SHATTLES
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Birds with Hairstyles - Days 10-15
10. Cape vulture with Marilyn Monroe waves
11. Immature Cooper's hawk with Bieber swoosh
12. Bald eagle with 1980s crimped hair
13. Australian white ibis with Lance Bass frosted tips
14. Gull with 1980s mullet
15. Canada goose with Karen cut
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Over the long weekend, I taught a couple of my field classes. Sunday was the field portion of the two-day Nature Identification for the Amateur Naturalist class (the next session of which will be the first weekend in July, if you're interested.) Among the many other nifty flora, fauna, and fungi we observed, we also found some great feathers!
The first is from a Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii) (likely juvenile secondary, according to the USFW Feather Atlas.) We actually got to see the bird that shed it, as a pair were courting far up in the trees above us--really cool to watch!
The second one is a turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) primary that some other park visitor had left tucked into the tree just so. And the third is a primary from some flavor of dove (Columbidae spp.)
It was a great opportunity to talk about how even though we may not observe an animal directly, we can still often find signs that they were there--feathers and fur, prints, scat, claw or antler marks on trees, etc. There is a lot of storytelling in nature interpretation, and these little clues are a great way to spark a tale of curiosity.
(Just as a reminder, it is against federal law in the US--the Migratory Bird Treaty Act--to possess the feathers of almost any wild bird. There's no way to distinguish a feather naturally molted, and one that was taken from a poached bird, so the law errs on the side of protection.)
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Virginia Wildlife; vol. 32, no. 4. April, 1971. Illustration by John W. Taylor.
Internet Archive
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BOTD: Cooper's Hawk
Photo: Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren
"A medium-sized hawk of the woodlands. Feeding mostly on birds and small mammals, it hunts by stealth, approaching its prey through dense cover and then pouncing with a rapid, powerful flight. Of the three bird-eating Accipiter hawks, Cooper's is the mid-sized species and the most widespread as a nesting bird south of Canada."
- Audubon Field Guide
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Cooper's Hawk
This gaze often precedes a flurry of action.
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Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
Oct 11, 2022
John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, Tinicum, Pennsylvania
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Oh yes
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