Bird question

[MadRiver]

Can anyone identify this bird? Two of them have been living near the house for the last several weeks.

http://oz.plymouth.edu/~rjkipphut/RAPTOR.jpg

Thanks.

 

[Jason Berard]

Immature Peregrine?

 

[sapblatt]

It is hard to tell small falcons and some hawks apart without seeing their wings spread...good guess...could also be a coopers or sharp shinned hawk - they are known to frequent backyards and eat song birds

 

[DrewKnight]

Been seeing a lot of these guys around the last couple weeks, including (sadly) a dead one on the side of 93 just north of Concord, with that speckled breast facing the fast lane on the median side.

I wonder if they're migrating? Haven't seen this particular configuration until just recently (though could be a) coincidence or b) a juvenile, as Jason suggests).

 

[Chip]

my first thought was young red tail hawk. we have many here, more than ever. not sure why. if they are migrating, it appears as though the geese here have started also.

 

[sardog1]

Sharpie or Cooper's are my bets. Some scale reference would help, although the two species can overlap some in size.

Ask the robins in your yard whether it matters, though. I watched one summer as a pair of robins here went 0 for 10 eggs, in three nests. I saw the last fledgling getting a power assist off the yard from a Sharpie, as the parents protested in vain. They followed into the woods and did not come back . . .

 

[weatherman]

Good point. I think the Sharpies wait for the fledglings to get nice and big but not big enough to fly... last year we had a nest of 5 robins on our front door, and perhaps a day before they fledged, I woke at sunrise to an incredible sound of angst from the parents. I looked at the nest when I got up an hour later, empty. No feathers, nothing. No fledglings on the lawn... I thought if the little ones were fledging that morning, there would at least be 1 or 2 on the lawn. I asked myself how a cat could have done that without knocking the nest off the door, but didn't consider that the attack could have been from the air. Much cleaner. We have good woods cover in the yard, perfect for a stealth attack.

 

[Kevin Judy and Emma]

Hawk

Sharpies are gray on their backs and have blood red eyes. This looks more like a Cooper's to me, but I'm no expert. Could also be an immature Broadwing.

KDT

 

[Fisher Cat]

Ask the robins in your yard whether it matters, though. I watched one summer as a pair of robins here went 0 for 10 eggs, in three nests. I saw the last fledgling getting a power assist off the yard from a Sharpie, as the parents protested in vain. They followed into the woods and did not come back . . .

We actually had a sharp-shinned kill one of our laying hens back in the day. It was a mature sharp-shinned and was just barely bigger than the layer. I scared him/her off with a shotgun blast (without killing it) because it was dining right above the run. Didn't want it to get to comfortable. I was surprised it went after something that big.