Help with IDing a hawk?

[Dezirrae]

I had a young (I think young anyway) hawk show up yesterday in the backyard area and not quite sure what it is... I think it's young because it landed on the deck railing while my husband & I were sitting outside. Of course it only stayed for a second and flew to a tree where I was able to get some long-distance pictures. I posted one here and the rest are on Picasa(http://picasaweb.google.com/Dezirrae/HawkNov2007). P.S. Also two pictures from 2005 of a hawk with a really long tail that I'd love to know what breed it is as well.

Thanks all

[Pigeon lower]

i saw in ur pick u have 3 pigeons with bands,buddy has a elctronic band too

[Dezirrae]

Yes -- I've had a few visitors the past couple months as you saw. Bird's story starts out in a thread under "Bird Emergancies" (http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=23129) which is actually what brought me to PT in the first place. Bird's "story" continues on another thread (http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=23558) and she is still happily living with her feral family. I haven't seen Buddy for over a month and figure/hope s/he finally made it home from whatever race s/he was in

Any idea on what breed(s) the two hawks might be though? I can't quite tell from the field guide I have.

[Pigeonpal2002]

Hi Dezirrae ,

It's really hard to tell what species of hawk that is because of the ambiguity of the photo itself. The bird is surrounded in tree foliage and lots of colours. When a person needs an identification on a hawk or any other bird a more detailed description is needed for identification. Size; relative to a known bird, wing shape, tail length, eye colour, length and girth of legs and colour etc.,etc.,etc.


Merely guessing, I would say a red tail juvenile or a cooper's hawk.....but that is strictly a guess only.

[Dezirrae]

Thanks Brad - Yes, some of that information would be helpful... LOL Sadly I can't give too much detail because it flew away too quickly -- I didn't have a chance to see details like the eye color. But I did note that it was about 1.5 ft tall, yellow legs, chest hair seemed to be mostly white with only a tinge of brown so far (which is what made me think it was a juvenile). What caught my eye really was the streak of white around the eyes -- sort of like of batman mask if that makes sense? I didn't get a good look at the tail, but through the binoculars it looked fairly short and solid colored. I was thinking a red tail juvenile as well since we do have a few red tails around here, but couldn't find a good picture that matched in my field guide or on the net. Thanks for reminding me about the necessary details though

[pigeon kid]

i think it is a red tailed hawk. here are some pics, hope it helps