ML611049526
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
At the overlook, first seen as it was chasing a small group of Mourning Doves. The hawk was only a size larger than the doves, but its wing beats seemed more powerful. After an unsuccessful attempt to reach the doves, the hawk perched for a minute or two along the path below the overlook. (This is when the attached photos were taken.) Another dove passed by and the hawk threw itself up into the air, giving chase. By the time the two birds flew out of sight over the crest of the hill, the hawk was close to overtaking the dove. I first listed this bird as a Sharp-shinned Hawk, but Vincent Zollo (to whom I'm grateful) has persuaded me that it's a Cooper's. Here I'll just go through the thinking that led me to think it was a Sharp-shin. In the field had I identified the bird, rather automatically, as a Sharp-shin, because of its small size (only a bit larger than the Mourning Doves it was chasing, I thought) and what seemed to me to be a notched and straight-cut tail. Once I had a chance to mull over the photos (and before hearing from Vin), I began to wonder whether the bird might instead be a Cooper's. There were, I thought, two considerations weighing in favor of that: the fact that the bird's head doesn't appear small, or out of proportion to the body; and the fact that the tail feathers are significantly graduated. Although the second point in particular continued to nag me, there were, I reasoned, more points weighing in favor of a verdict of Sharp-shin: the bird's small size (which the photos couldn't of course capture); the bird's rounded head; the thin band of white at the end of the tail; the extensive streaking on the belly; the thin legs (thin to my eyes, at least); the very noticeable notch in the tail; and the short supercilial line that's visible in all the photos. But as I said, Vin has persuaded me that these factors aren't as decisive as the factors on the other side. One lasting lesson of my photographs is that Cooper's Hawks sometimes show notched tails.
Technical information
- Model
- OM-1
- Lens
- OM 150-400mm F4.5
- ISO
- 1000
- Focal length
- 335 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/6.3
- Shutter speed
- 1/1000 sec
- Dimensions
- 4371 pixels x 2540 pixels
- Original file size
- 2.74 MB