| Man oh man what a bird :) We've beat this to death, but I do recall one more key feature from an old bird book years ago. A Cooper's will have a rounded tail, not the notch seen here. Problem is, I don't really remember if that little tidbid was to help in distinguising a Cooper's from a gos or from a sharpie... BTW, those 3 birds (goshawk, Cooper's, and sharp-shinned) all accipiters, look VERY similar, except for size and range. Accipiters used to be described as "true hawks" in some of the books, that is, what in the Old World were known as hawks. When the first settlers came to the New World, they incorrectly called birds such as Red-tails, Swainson's etc. "hawks"... and the name stuck. Such birds were known in Europe during that time as "buzzards"... now what we call "buzzards" (such as the Turkey vulture and Black vulture) were originally called Vultures over there! Probably more than you ever cared to hear, huh? :o) -Ray |
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