Northern harrier or another hawk?

[mr.sharp-photo]

cross-posted from the main board. any thoughts would help.


this was really strange. we were out with some friends today and were dropped off at my East York house at 4 PM. we were in the car talking and i suddenly saw something big fly out of the neighbour's evergreens. it landed in our 6-foot-tall bush that's right beside our front steps.
it was a large hawk that had a robin-red breast.
not positive what it was. it lingered for 10 seconds or so and then quickly flew behind out house (east) and i lost sight of where it went.
it was really neat and really strange. not sure how many hawks have a dark head and a reddish breast.
any suggestions would be great.
i assume its a harrier simply because of the red. not sure if they come down the Don River area ever.

[Howieh]

How cool, the exact same thing happened to me around noon today, in my back yard. It occurred to me after posting that it might be a kestral but I think it was too big. I actually cleaned the windows just for such opportunities, guess I'll keep one of my cameras out of the bag just in case!!

[mr.sharp-photo]

yeah, this was waaay to big to be a kestrel.
after looking at pics, it was likely a sharp-shinned haw.

[raypye]

Coopers Hawk- adult, would be my first guess.
I don't think that I have ever seen a Northern Harrier sitting in a evegreen tree.
Rayfield Pye

[amblesidebirder]

Based on your description, I would lean towards a Cooper's Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk. Northern Harriers will perch themselves in a tree, but not very often as raypye mentioned and hardly in a conifer tree. They like to stay low to the ground and are often found perched right on the ground. A Kestrel is approx Mockingbird/Robin size and this raptor sounded much larger.