What kind of Bird?

I don't use my camera much for nature and wildlife, but here in Southern California, I am surrounded by it. This morning, while drinking my coffee, this guy was screaming at the crows....who seemed to be taunting him all morning. Do any of you know what kind of bird this is?

One thing is for sure, I could be tempted into a larger zoom or maybe an extender for my 70-200 f2.8L IS MkII to get a much better shot!

It looks like a hawk or falcon , bird of prey. Not sure which.

I've been doing photography for decades, but only recently have been photographing birds.

I'm not a birder and am on a steep learning curve as to their ID. I came across this wonderful site where you can post an image like this and within no time at all there are great folks providing ID and info on your birds.

http://www.whatbird.com/

Looks like a Red Tailed Hawk to me.
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Yogi

When you get down to the nuts and bolts of photography, the results depend on the 'nut' behind the camera!

See the 'Plan' in my 'Profile' for my current equipment.

Yogi, I think you are correct. I posted this picture in FB this morning, and many of my friends said that they have heard we have quite a few of these birds nesting in our area but, like me, have never seen one very close!

I don't think it's a Red-tailed Hawk. The hawk in your photo has stripes on the top side of the tail; only the juvenile Red-tails have stripes on the top side of the tail, whereas adults have a solid rusty red coloring there (hence the name Red-tailed Hawk). So if your photo were of a Red-tailed Hawk, it would have to be a juvenile.

However, juvenile Red-tails have pale eyes, and adults have darkish red eyes (and this is the case with most hawks). The hawk in your photo has red eyes, so it's an adult hawk. So it can't be a Red-tail.

Furthermore, a Red-tail has closely-spaced stripes on the tail, whereas the hawk in your photo has widely-spaced stripes, like a Red-shouldered Hawk.

I'm pretty sure you photographed a Red-shouldered Hawk. There is one thing confusing me a little bit — the apparent size and heft (the GISS — General Impression of Size and Shape) makes me think "Red-tailed Hawk". Nevertheless I think the field marks override that and make it a Red-shouldered Hawk. (Theoretically it could be some other Buteo — I'm only familiar with the Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks.)

Anyway, nice photo! Is that a 100% crop?

Not sure by what you mean "100% Crop". Using my 70-200, this guy in the original RAW file looked like part of the tree, maybe a brown lump in the branches. I quickly did a little pp in LR. When you open the crop tool, it splits the screen into 9 squares. The finished product represents only about one of those 9, so it is really not that crisp or clear.

As for the species, although no bird experts here in Riverside, we have all heard that the Red-Tailed version is in our area and growing, with new juveniles showing up over the last few years.

I will keep trying to get pictures. These guys are always fighting with crows and the other day we had one on our Dish on the roof.....of course I had no camera. I'm starting to see why so many good pics posted on these forums are from folks who carry their camera everywhere!

David, I think you are right. I found this excerpt regarding the species:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-shouldered_hawk/lifehistory

Although the American Crow often mobs the Red-shouldered Hawk, sometimes the relationship is not so one-sided. They may chase each other and try to steal food from each other. They may also both attack a Great Horned Owl and join forces to chase the owl out of the hawk's territory.

We have crows and owls out here amongst all the Orange trees. There is no shortage of food, with rabbits, mice and other pests. Aside from the noise they make, glad they are around....wish there were more!

Red-shouldered Hawk

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&cp=4&gs_id=e&xhr=t&q=hawksmoor&biw=856&bih=617&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi#um=1&hl=en&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=redtailed+hawk&oq=redtailed+hawk&aq=f&aqi=g-s10&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=28166l34013l0l34941l10l10l0l0l0l0l231l1699l1.7.2l10&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=bd46917ff6ecc889&biw=856&bih=617
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http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x223/eirianfa2002/?albumview=slideshow&mediafilter=images

http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x223/eirianfa2002/Komandoo%202008/?albumview=grid

A buzzard then

NightOwl said:

Red-shouldered Hawk

Click to expand...

Thanks , I bookmarked site .
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1st it's a hobby
7D gripped XTI gripped
Canon - efs 10-22 , 17-55 , ef 18-55 IS
EF 28-90 , 28 @ 2.8 , 50 @1.8 , 28-135 IS
L's 35-350 , 70-200 MK II IS
Quantaray lens 70-300 macro
Sigma 135 - 400
2X III , Life Size converter
KSM filters for all
kenko auto tubes , EF 25

nice shot
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1st it's a hobby
7D gripped XTI gripped
Canon - efs 10-22 , 17-55 , ef 18-55 IS
EF 28-90 , 28 @ 2.8 , 50 @1.8 , 28-135 IS
L's 35-350 , 70-200 MK II IS
Quantaray lens 70-300 macro
Sigma 135 - 400
2X III , Life Size converter
KSM filters for all
kenko auto tubes , EF 25