Humber Bay Park West

[ravynne40]

Went for the CCFEW Bird walk this morning, it was great.
here is one of our finds: Hawk with is morning breakfast!



Irene

[Niloc]

Wow nice capture well done!!!

[JTF]

Wow,what a great shot. Excellent.

[ravynne40]

Thank you Colin and Paul

we couldn't determine the type of hawk, but i think he was a young red-tail, the breast is all wrong for cooper's or sharpie

[Anonymous]

Great capture!

You're right - it isn't a mature coopers or sharpie...hint hint...

[Scott]

Nice sharp shot Irene

[Bluffs Birder]

Hi Irene,

That is truly a great capture, it really displays what it means to be a 'raptor'.  The death stare is wonderful, especially after the kill.

I'm almost 100% certain that the bird is a juvenile Cooper's Hawk.  Both the Cooper's Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk have yellow eyes when young which eventually turn to red as they mature.  They also do a complete change in feather colour as well, turning from brown to grey on their backs and from beige to orange on their breasts and bellies, they're very simular in appearance but in size they are different.  The size of this bird is definitely bigger than the prey (Pigeon) it's eating whereas a Sharpie would be roughly the same size, if not smaller, than the Pigeon.  A Red-tailed Hawk would appear even larger than a Cooper's while holding a Pigeon.  Red-tails also have a very distinct bellyband of brown feathers (seen below).  Hope this helps.



Walter  

update:
I just looked at your 'flickr' page and noticed that you have several great photos of Red-tailed Hawks from today, the 'bellyband' is quite obvious in some of your shots.

[denis]

that,s an excellent shot,irene.
congrats.

[Brian Bailey]

Hi Irene,

Very nice job pulling out the shadow detail!  I know how harsh the lighting was because I have some very similar shots.

It was a small Coopers.  At the time I thought it was small enough to be a Sharpie, but when I looked at my images later I realized it had to be a Coopers with those thin breast streaks.

BB

[Moira]

Sensational Irene!  Definitely "wall worthy"  

[Photoman]

Outstanding shot Irene, just perfect.

Clemens

[ravynne40]

Thank you everyone for your information and kind comments ( i was having a good camera day!)

Brian, he was beautiful, i used photoshop to "lighten" the shadows with some minimal cropping,  my photo was very dark. its too bad we couldn't see his tail!
someone also suggested he might be a goshawk, but i have never seen on of those either. I think maybe he was too small for a goshawk.

Once again, thank you.

Irene

[ravynne40]

ok now i am torn i have viewed some pictures of juvenile goshawks as well as  juvenile coopers pics

i can't make up my mind what it is

[beresford]

Thats an awesome 'classic' raptor shot!

Congratulations

[Bluffs Birder]

Hi Irene,

Brian was right, it's a Cooper's.

Tip to tail a Northern Goshawk is actually bigger than a Red-tail. A Goshawk also has much heavier streaking over the entire underside than a Cooper's.

Northern Goshawk (from icebiker1's photostream on flickr)


If anyone is having trouble ID'ing Hawks, all I can say is attend a Hawk Watch as many times as you can, it's amazing what you'll see and learn.  There is one that has just started on March 1st at Beamer Conservation Area in Grimsby, the only local springtime Watch.  They counted over 17,000 hawks last season.  In the fall their are many Watches along the shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

Walter