timberlandko wrote:rosborne979 wrote: Unfortunately (for ease of identification), the immature Coopers Hawks have a lot of brown in them.
Huh! Interesting - makes sense, really, but it never occurred to me. Thanks for the info.
They also have seasonal variation. Here is a link on identifying these
'Accipiter Hawks'. I can identify most birds by body style, or 'gestalt' as well as plumage. But I've seen both these hawks in my area (one of them took a blue jay right off my feeder), and they are very hard to distinguish. If they sit still long enough you can usually figure it out, but they don't like to be stared at for very long.
As the link says, "Therefore, perhaps more than any other similar-looking pair, no single field mark is likely to distinguish one species from the other. Instead, the careful observer must use a combination of field marks and draw from the overall "gestalt" of the hawk for proper identification. No field guide will substitute plenty of practice in the field for this pair."
