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Accipiter cooperii
This is definitely a hawk of some kind, locally we have red tails and the coloration on its tail leads me to believe that's what this bird of prey is.
These pix were taken in the bel-air knolls area of Santa Barbara, this is one of the few places in town where there is a relatively healthy large population of oak trees and with housing moderately dense there would be a large enough rodent population to sustain a decent population of snakes and birds of prey.
Spotted on Jun 9, 2012
Submitted on Jul 19, 2012
3 Comments
By range this is a Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii). Sharp-shinned Hawks are winter residents in SoCal.
I'm seeing a Cooper's Hawk here too. It's definitely in the genus Accipiter, and I'm leaning on Cooper's over Sharp-shinned because of the apparently pale nape on the neck.
Hard to tell from those pictures, but I would lean more towards a Cooper's Hawk then a red tail. It's hard to tell if that's a black cap, but the tail looks like it might be rounded.