TonyCooper
Mar-26-2009, 10:20 PM
This fellow swooped through my yard this afternoon, and I ran to the car and grabbed my camera. The shots I took of it flying were blurred, and all I got was the back. I was going to delete the shot, but first I went through my "Birds of Florida" to verify that it's a Red-Shouldered Hawk.
The problem is that all the identification pictures in the book show front views. All the web sources show front views or views of the bird in flight.
I may be the only person offering the back view of this hawk.
I am a bit perplexed, though. There's a definite red shoulder there, but the book's illustration of the Cooper's Hawk has the white tipped tail feathers and the Red-Shouldered Hawk has white bands but not white tips at the end.
I'm going with Cooper's Hawk, but only because it's Cooper's hawk photo.
http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/photos/499714237_zLWxh-L.jpg
The problem is that all the identification pictures in the book show front views. All the web sources show front views or views of the bird in flight.
I may be the only person offering the back view of this hawk.
I am a bit perplexed, though. There's a definite red shoulder there, but the book's illustration of the Cooper's Hawk has the white tipped tail feathers and the Red-Shouldered Hawk has white bands but not white tips at the end.
I'm going with Cooper's Hawk, but only because it's Cooper's hawk photo.
http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/photos/499714237_zLWxh-L.jpg