Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

This morning Mead Gardens was incredibly slow, but as I was walking back to the car, this Cooper's Hawk flew right by me and landed in a tree not far from me.  I walked a circle around the bird and photographed it from many different angles.  From some angles, the background was pretty far behind the bird without bright patches from light shining through tree leaves.

Cooper's Hawk

These photos also illustrate some of the best ways I've found to distinguish Cooper's Hawks from Sharp-shinned Hawks:

1. The tail has a thick white stripe at the bottom--especially in the fall, when their plumage is new, this is a helpful way to distinguish between them. 
2. The bottom of the tail looks more rounded than squared--this is the easiest way to to distinguish them when their tails are fanned.
3. The pattern on the chest extends to the belly. Sharp-shinned Hawks usually have a white lower belly.
4. The gray on the top of the head looks more like a cap than a hood.  That is, the back of the neck is not as dark as the top of the head.

Cooper's Hawks are also larger than Sharp-shinned Hawks, though these photos can't illustrate that, and size is sometime difficult to determine in the field.  And female hawks are larger than males, so a male Cooper's Hawk can be about the same size as a female Sharp-shinned Hawk.  So unless it looks very small (male Sharp-shinned) or large (female Coopers), I don't rely on my sense of size.

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hand

Cooper's Hawk