Hawk paid a visit

When we got back from our run this morning, I noticed that a hawk was paying a visit to our front yard. There are a bunch of small birds living in a bush out front, but they were sensible enough to make themselves scarce! While my wife kept an eye on the hawk, I went inside, got my R, attached the Tamron 100-400, and went back out to find that it was still there, but had moved from a branch at eye level down to one near the ground. It (he? she?) obligingly posed for a few minutes before flying off.

I didn't have time to grab my touchscreen sensitive gloves, so my hands were well and truly frozen by the time I finished (it was 16 F, which is -9 C), but it was worth it.

My sister-in-law, who saw a picture my wife took with her phone, says it's a Cooper's Hawk. Does that sound right?

Yes it looks like a juvenile coopers hawk. If you have small birds around it will come back again.

It's nice when they sit and give you time to photograph them, most I've seen will only sit for for a few seconds then move on.

I don't know why but the Hawk looks somehow decapitated.

Alexander Rosenwald wrote:

I don't know why but the Hawk looks somehow decapitated.

Hah! Yes, I know what you mean. I think it's because the head feathers are not continuous with the body feathers (so his head can swivel), which gives the impression of a line just below the head.

Alastair Norcross wrote:

When we got back from our run this morning, I noticed that a hawk was paying a visit to our front yard. There are a bunch of small birds living in a bush out front, but they were sensible enough to make themselves scarce! While my wife kept an eye on the hawk, I went inside, got my R, attached the Tamron 100-400, and went back out to find that it was still there, but had moved from a branch at eye level down to one near the ground. It (he? she?) obligingly posed for a few minutes before flying off.

I didn't have time to grab my touchscreen sensitive gloves, so my hands were well and truly frozen by the time I finished (it was 16 F, which is -9 C), but it was worth it.

My sister-in-law, who saw a picture my wife took with her phone, says it's a Cooper's Hawk. Does that sound right?

Beautifull , what a gorgious bird !!!!

Great captures, he's a beauty!

Wonderful opportunity, well taken advantage of. Nice pictures. That's a 6-18-month old Cooper's hawk.

I did a project with the US Forest Service a couple years back providing pictures for a study of their evolving morphology (how they develop physically) as nestlings. They're wonderful birds, and the most likely ones to be picking off your feeder birds in most places in the US.

The eye color gives a decent sense of age.