Accipiter striatus

Sometimes all the birds in the back yard scatter and disappear for an hour. I joke that there must be a hawk around, and occasionally I see a raptor of some sort pass by, but he never stays long enough for a picture or even a good inspection with binoculars. Today, this fellow swooped by and landed in the neighbor's tree, staying for about an hour and a half. I took pictures through the window, went to another room in the house and took hand-held pictures through an open window, and he still stayed in one place. So I went and set up the tripod, and took another few hundred pictures. Then I walked outside and got as close as about 10 meters away, and took another 50 pictures, before he had enough and flew off.

My original ID for this bird was a Cooper's Hawk, but my expert friends tell me it is more likely to be a Sharp-shinned Hawk, so that's how I am going to label this bird. This bird is larger than a Dove, but not larger than a crow -- so to the extent that size matters, if it is a Sharp-shinned Hawk, it is probably a female.