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Bo Zaremba | all galleries >> Vertebrates >> Birds of Massachusetts >> Cooper’s Hawk > Cooper’s Hawk ♀
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13-FEB-2013

Cooper’s Hawk ♀

Newburyport, MA
Well, that's a fun accipiter! But a Coop (juv female).

1. Supercilliums vary. And while Gos normally have a honking white slab over the eye, some don't and some Coop and Sharpies can have a fairly prominent one.

2. This is a side view. And Cooper's Hawks have a well-marked flank area from stem to stern with markings that are larger and square.

3. So… try to force your eye to look along the centerline of the breast and belly —— here we can just see small markings that are clustered on the upper breast and thin out aft.

4. Conversely, when a Coop is overhead, the flank markings almost disappear to the eye and we see the small markings in a thinning fashion.

5. The third image of the upper wing surface is classic Coop. Some white smallish spotting scattered about. And this is just what a Coop has. A young Sharpie has a very plain upper surface; you can barely make out the Sharpies pale covert edgings. But the Gos. Juv and SY Goshawks have a snowfall of white markings often forming a pale bar on the upper wing covert surface. Thanks for the images!
Tom Carrolan
Liverpool NY
www.hawksaloft.com


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