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Accipiter cooperii
This was a surprise visitor at my backyard feeder. I live in a small-town neighborhood.
Thank you Malcolm Wilton-Jones for your input. Your photo really shows the difference between the feet of the two birds. The hawk that visited my feeder had the thicker legs. It also was a very large bird, perhaps 14-16 inches in height. From what I have read on the two hawks, the Cooper's is much larger than the Sharp-shinned.
This bird has thick legs and long toes and claws for catching large birds such as pigeons for its prey, so for me is a Cooper's. The Sharp-shinned has much tinier feet reflecting its diet of smaller birds.
Look at this picture of the two together and compare the feet: https://projectfeederwatch.files.wordpre...
I have both. My mom gets juv cooper's at her house every year. And she gets an occasional sharp shinned. I get both occasioanlly at my place 20 miles away
Thank you KarenSaxton. The Cooper's Hawk is very common in my area of Illinois. I wish I was a bird expert:)
Thank you Joshua Asel for the ID suggestion. This is the first time I have seen a hawk of this type. I see what you mean about it about it being Sharp-shinned Hawk. Sharp-shinned Hawks are endangered in our area. It would be fantastic if I had an endangered species land in my backyard:)
I'm with Stephanie: the cap on the head is visisble, the long neck and thick legs all speak Coopers
This is a Sharp-shinned Hawk :) Judging by the rounded head (vs Cooper's square head) and the eyes are further apart from the beak (which there is almost no space between beak and eyes on Cooper's).