ID Please

ID Please

Looks like a juvenile Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk. Barred tail, striped chest and yellow eyes (eyes on a cooper's can be other colors, but this is typical). It is also in some thick bushes. Cooper's love to hunt for small birds like sparrows inside tight spaces that many other large birds won't even try to fly in.

it is a Cooper's Hawk. take note however that the traits mentioned above are shared with the very similar Sharp-shinned Hawk. Important ID points are the rounded tail (in the closed tail here, notice that the outer (lower) tail feathers are shorter than the central ones) and the relatively fine streaking on the breast. Sharp-shinned has a squared tail (all feathers essentially the same length) and thicker heavier streaking. this is immature bird--next year it will molt into adult plumage with orange barring on the chest, bluish gray on the back and wings, and the eye will change to a reddish orange.

Brian's summary of evidence for conviction as a juvie Cooper's cannot be improved upon! Although the iris of the juvie's eye in both sharpie and Cooper's can range from graysh-yellow, yellow, to yellowish-tan, the crucial point is that it is NOT red-orange or ruby red (proof positive that the bird is in its second year!)

Dave in East River, SD