What a wonderful surprise I got this morning when I went out my door to walk to the drugstore. A bird landed on the fence ahead of me. It looked to be too big to be a Scrub Jay. The bird then flew to the roof of the garage next door. I rushed back to my house to exchange cameras for one that had a longer zoom. When I got back the bird was still there, fortunately. Upon examining the photos, I see one leg sort of hanging down in some pictures. I wondered if the leg was injured. You see the leg hanging way down in this photo. The hawk flew away after a while, so I couldn't tell for sure.


I checked some of my references and thought it to be a Red-shouldered Hawk. It has the same black and white stripes across the tail feathers and reddish striped head, which the Red-tailed hawk, of course, doesn't have. Feedback suggests that this is more likely a Cooper's Hawk. We live in town, in a residential area and I don't recall seeing a hawk so close to home before. As Jack explained, Cooper's Hawks like to hunt in residential areas. So that does fit. One feature of the Cooper's Hawk in my bird books is black on top of the head, unlike this one. On the other hand, it seem that birds can vary at different stages in life and at different times of year. Whatever the hawk, it was pretty exciting for me! :)

Ah, confusion (on my part) cleared up! Thanks Tom. I checked online and books, and sure enough you are right! The hawk I photographed is a juvenile Cooper's Hawk. The adults have the black on top of the head.