Hawk in PA (USA) (1 Viewer)

[jt19096]

Sorry for the low res. picture, but my son took this picture of a hawk in our backyard on the 1st of March. We're just NW of Philadelphia, PA.

2x through Sibley didn't fully convince us. Is it a Broad Winged?

Thanks for any help,

John T.

 

[Gillian_M]

Welcome to BirdForum! You've certainly come to the right place to get an ID for your mystery hawk! :hi:

I'm no expert on hawks, but I'm wondering if it could be an accipiter with that tail length. I don't have any experience with Broad-wings, so I'll just wait for the real experts to come along....!

 

[B Lagopus]

Hello and welcome, John!

Nice raptor! Your bird is an accipiter, rather than a buteo (different genus). Note how long the tail is, and how the folded wings don't even reach halfway down the tail. (Also there wouldn't be any Broad-wingeds that far north on March 1st.)

The bad news is that the likely accipiter candidates, Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawk can be notoriously difficult to tell apart. Based upon what looks like a relativey short tail (for an accipiter), and fairly small and rounded head, with a small bill, I'm inclined to think that your raptor is likely a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

 

[jt19096]

Thanks to both of you!

I was thinking accipiter first too, but I couldn't find anything in Sibley among the accipiters that made sense of the pattern of lighter patches on the back of the bird.

- John

 

[B Lagopus]

I was thinking accipiter first too, but I couldn't find anything in Sibley among the accipiters that made sense of the pattern of lighter patches on the back of the bird.

I think Sibley's book is a work of genius, but keep in mind that he has very little space to deal with what can be a great deal of variation within in each species. Be sure and read what he has to say at the front of the book, about not expecting any particular bird to exactly match the generic painting.

As for young Sharp-shinned, many coverts (wing feathers) can have pale edgings, and the bases of the scapulars (back feathers) have pale bases, that can become prominent when the bird is cold and fluffs its feathers.

Hope this helps!

 

[Garrett Lau]

In this case, National Geographic is a better reference than Sibley. The National Geographic illustrations clearly show the white spots, and the text mentions them (at least in the big version, Complete Birds of North America). Unfortunately, the pattern of the spots is not useful in distinguishing Cooper's from Sharp-shinned. My guess would be Sharp-shinned, for the same reasons that B Lagopus mentioned.

 

[AlexC]

Agree with 2CY Sharpie. Small, round head, no visible terminal tail band...

 

[jt19096]

Thanks to all for the swift, expert help. What a great resource.

-John