Date: 9/1/25 7:09 am From: Merle and Marsha Hall <mghall...> Subject: [ia-bird] Re: Chasin' squirrels...
Meant to let folks know that the ID has been corrected to Immature
Female Cooper's Hawk.
Merle
On 8/29/25 11:51 AM, Merle and Marsha Hall wrote:
>
> This guy showed up in our neighbor's backyard yesterday morning.
> Marsha saw him and I grabbed the camera and followed him around up and
> down the alley. He kept trying to catch a squirrel, any squirrel, but
> was never successful. I bet he tried six or eight times and failed
> every time.
>
> Immature Sharp-shinned Hawk, best I can tell from the description on
> the Cornell site: " Very thick, rufous stripes that extend down the
> lower belly are a good indication of Sharp-shinned Hawk, and very
> thin, dark streaks that fade away on the lower belly are a good
> indication of Cooper’s Hawk." and "The size of the head relative to
> the body can be a reliable field mark....usually a Sharp-shinned
> Hawk’s head looks small, and a Cooper’s Hawk’s head looks large.
> Sharp-shinned Hawks appear short-necked; Cooper’s Hawks appear tall."
> Though it also says Sharp-shinned are smaller than a crow and this guy
> was bigger than that.
>
> I didn't get any great photos. These are pretty cropped as I tried to
> stay far enough away so as to not interfere. Would've liked to get one
> of him and the squirrel, but missed. At one point, he was up and down
> on the other side of a small berm and came to rest where he is in that
> photo with the Hosta leaves. At that point, the squirrel comes out
> from behind a parked car and saunters by not ten feet from him. He
> just sat there.Maybe he was just practicing? The Cornell description
> says their diet is mainly small birds, so who knows. These were
> probably young squirrels, but they had him beat.
>
> Merle
>
