It was just outside my back door, and dinner looks to be a smaller bird. This is in western WA state, ~20 miles north of Seattle, within a few miles of Puget Sound.



At first glance, I notice the plumage patterns, bright yellow legs, and black/white/yellow beak. I'm not really a birder, though, so haven't narrowed it down to a specific species.

Btw... I'm kinda torn between a Cooper's hawk and a sharp-shinned hawk now. I could be totally wrong, though.

My first response is immature, whatever it is. Don't have a lot of Western books on this side of the country.
Mary

I think the head's too big for an Accipiter (Coopers/ Sharp Shin)
Looks like some Buteo (same genus as red tails). Broad winged, Swainsons, etc, not sure what you have up thataway. Agree with Innocent on maturity.

A Cooper's hawk is about crow sized or just a little bigger, a Sharp Shin is a little bigger than a grackle. Tails are much longer than the pictured bird. Short, broad wings in flight, agile in tight quarters. Plumage on the head usually suggests a crest. Eyes often orange.

Buteo's are generally bigger, Longer wings but still rounder on tips.

Here's a different crop of the picture, with less zoom on the bird and a post bracket beside it for reference. From the concrete (that we just poured) level to the top of the post brack is 7.5 inches. I'd guess the bird's height is 10 inches or barely under.

I love birds of prey. Here is a falcon from "Lees Ferry" in Arizona. That is just below Lake Powell at the Utah/Arizona border. Took this shot just before a float trip a couple of years ago.




There are so many varieties of hawks that it usually takes someone pretty familiar to ID them. Some are very similar.

Jason, I sent the second picture to my cousin and he said, from the picture, it looks like it is a Sharp-shinned Hawk, female. The other comments I sent you still apply s to age etc..

I'm kinna thinking a young 'northern harrier. The area is correct and an adult is from 16 to 24 inches.

Jerry G wrote:I'm kinna thinking a young 'northern harrier. The area is correct and an adult is from 16 to 24 inches.

I had no idea that the Northern Harrier's habitat was so widespread.
http://www.peregrinefund.org/explore_ra ... rrier.html

This page has a pic of a mature Northern Harrier which looks a great deal like the young bird that raised the question.
http://mayo.personcounty.net/Bird%20Fol ... f_prey.htm

That really is a beautiful bird!

Doves have started roosting at night in some of the trees on campus - annoying because the sidewalk is covered in fresh dove stuff the next morning. Yesterday the sidewalk was also covered in down, so I'm looking for the raptor that performed this service so I can thank them. I've only witnessed one hawk strike, on a pigeon, and it was incredible! Their target just goes }poof{ and it's over. And then their buddies decide the neighborhood has gone down so they move out.

In AZ that job is done by roadrunners. They clean out dove nests like no other bird I have ever seen.

I wonder if the Norther Harrier has an appetite for Grackles?

If so, we have a bountiful supply for them, but I suspect they are a bit big and nasty for them to take on.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Grea ... Grackle/id

The little darlings are protected under the Migratory Bird Act.

I wonder if Peregrines have a taste for them in addition to pidgeons?

RBriscoe wrote:I wonder if the Norther Harrier has an appetite for Grackles?

If so, we have a bountiful supply for them, but I suspect they are a bit big and nasty for them to take on.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Grea ... Grackle/id

The little darlings are protected under the Migratory Bird Act.

I wonder if Peregrines have a taste for them in addition to pidgeons?

Something needs to eat those things, but then the cure might be worse than the disease...

Hi Jason:

I sent the picture to a friend of mine who is a wildlife biologist in Idaho. He is very familiar with the flora and fauna in that part of the country.
His opinion is that it is an immature Cooper's hawk. He says that at maturity the eyes will change from being yellow to being red and that the legs will change to being red and that feathers will grow further down the bird's leg at maturity. Therefore if you look up a picture of a mature Coooper's hawk it will not look quite the same as the one in the picture and will also be a little bit bigger than the one in the picture. He told me some other stuff that I don't remember as well.

If it is important to get a determinative answer he can send the picture to the foremost wildlife biologist in the country on raptors to be absolutely sure, but he is about 90% sure.
I can't vouch for my friend's knowledge of raptors, but I can on his knowledge of deer. His whole house is full of Boone and Crockett and Pope and Young heads. There are three in the guest bathroom.

Now I remember the other part of my friend's determination. He says that the middle tail feathers being longer than the side tail feathers indicate that it is a Cooper's hawk, particulary an immature Coooper's hawk. It is very easy to confuse the immature Cooper's hawk with a sharpshinned hawk because an immature Cooper's and mature sharp-shinned hawk have no feathers on their lower legs, so many people take an immature Coooper's for a sharp-shinned hawk. The shape of the tail feathers tells the difference. The Sharp-shinned hawk has equal length tail feathers.