Hawkwatch International - Shape Shifters

Hawkwatch International - Shape Shifters: Check out this composite image of a Cooper’s Hawk (http://hawkwatch.org/learn/factsheets/item/91-coopers-hawk) passing at eye-level on migration...

It is so important to stay on the bird to see all the possible profiles and views it offers....

We teach that in our outings and watches to stay on it and get all you can, we try to do this on all raptors, but always when its a species that is often hard call or misidentified. So often folks see a bird, make a call and then they move to look for the next bird, staying on a bird to see all its appearance at each angle is indeed a major key to un-tapping the wonders of Raptor Identification.... love the Blog HWI, thank you 

Great accipiter study here, Cooper's Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk and More.......

Cooper's Hawk, & Sharp-shinned Hawk - Study skins and ID Notes

Hi there,
Today (January 23rd) I spent a few hours at the Canadian Museum of Nature Collections Facility in Gatineau, QC. The focus for today's visit was Accipters; specifically, Sharp-shinned (SSHA) and Cooper's Hawk (COHA) identification. I also spent some time with the Northern Goshawk (NOGO) skins and have included some notes/photos on it, as well.

Accipiter ID is real challenging - most especially differentiating between A) Sharp-shinned vs. Cooper's Hawk and B) Juvenile accipiters. My hope is that the collection of photos below serve as an identification and learning resource to those interested in accipiters.

To note, the idea for these photos/captions stems from a browse of this webpage: http://slatermuseum.blogspot.ca/2013/06/accipiters-in-museum.html.

Anyhow - thanks for visiting. Enjoy the pics

http://jonruddy.blogspot.com/2014/01/hi-there-today-january-23rd-i-spent-few.html

quick note on size: I use terms like "small", "typical", and "large." These terms coincide with the averages presented on BNA & Cornell. At the CMN, each study skin is tagged and details like length and weight are visible on each respective tag. I used what I knew of each species' size range (below) to form size judgments in relation to averages.
Sharp-shinned Hawk: Both Sexes: Length: 9.4–13.4 in. Weight: 87–218 g
Coopers Hawk: Male Lgth: 14.6–15.4 in. Wt: 220–410 g. Female Lgth: 16.5–17.7 in. Wt: 330–680 g
Northern Goshawk:  Both Sexes: Length: 20.9–25.2 in. Weight: 631–1364 g

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Sharp-shinned Hawk, originally uploaded by donnallong.

Copyright Donna Long, nice work Donna.