Bird Identification Help

[Porshaah]

Hi All

I'm having difficulty identifying a bird I spotted with 15X binoculars about 100ft. away,  perched in a tree in a Port Colborne (i.e. North shore of East Lake Erie) forest. The mental note I made at the time, is a medium size bird (i.e. slightly larger than a Robin), it had a large orange blotch (i.e. covering the majority of its' breast) on its' breast the shade of a female Robin but not mottled, the remaining area surrounding the orange blotch was light grey bordering on white. The back of the bird was a smooth mottled darker shade of gray. The head had black streaks on the same light grey background as indicated on the breast. I didn't get a profile view of the beak but I think it may have been like a hawk.

All responses welcomed

[Walter Fisher]

It likely could have been a male Sharp-shinned Hawk that you saw as they are gray backed, orange (rufous) breasted, and not much bigger than a Robin.  Just a thought.

Happy birding!
Walter

[Porshaah]

Thanks for the reply Walter.

Even though the images I Googled for the Sharp -shinned Hawk didn't match all the characteristics I mentioned, I learned it is one of the 3 Accipiters and if I mix and match I can build the bird I saw. Accipiters are small to medium-sized hawks of swift flight that occur around the world. The Canadian species are the Sharp-shinned Hawk Accipiter striatus, the Cooper’s Hawk Accipiter cooperii, and the Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis. I discovered a Cooper's Hawk nest in my back yard I can view from a rear window.

[Porshaah]

A recent article in a local newspaper has me convinced that the bird I spotted was a Kestrel hawk. The Coopers hawk nest which I observed from my window was very interesting. The majority of activity occurred early in the morning, where the pair of hawks did most of their feeding,, evident by leftovers on the ground. If they had offspring, the parents didn't stay at the nest too long, to keep the eggs warm and all activity ended one morning when what appeared to be an attack by a group of Turkey Vultures and Crows, leaving what appeared to be 2 baby hawks dead.