This beauty landed in a tree in my backyard in Southern, CA

Please help ID...thanks!

Cooper's Hawk maybe.

Yep, Cooper's Hawk, immature.

Resin

Thank you, both, for the info!

Really great photo of that beautiful hawk!

Yes, very nice shot!

Will you tolerate one more weigh-in?

This is indeed a juvenile Cooper's Hawk. Although the adults have more slate/grey coloring, the juvies are brown & cream on head, back, wings & tail. Eye color is also an indicator of age - more as a general rule of thumb than as a hard & fast marker. Young Cooper's and juveniles have yellow-to-orangish eyes. Adult Cooper's have beautiful dark red eyes - just gorgeous with their more slate coloring. This guy isn't sexually mature yet, but on the cusp -- think of a bratty teenager .

Without anything to use for scale, I can't guess as to gender, but in all birds of prey, the female is the larger partner in the pair.

The outstanding trait of Cooper's Hawks is the length of their tail - nearly that of their body & the only hawk to possess such a relatively long tail. It's banded brown as a juvie (like this one), darkening & muting to light & dark grey as adults, with a white tip.

I love these guys - they're the sportscars of the raptor world. They were created to hunt birds, at high speeds, through forests. These are what the old-timers used to call chicken hawks.

I'm not getting Cooper's in yet -- because of the severe winter we've had in the South, everything is laying later. In CA, it should be fledging season, with the accompanying raucous hunting lessons. These moms can really screech at the youngsters when they're teaching them to hunt! Enjoy!! You've really got something special here!

Hope I've helped.

Chris
Critical care Bird of Prey Rehabilitator
Tampa Bay

That's quite interesting and helpful information, Chris.

Thanks so much, Chris. I just got back to the site today...I missed all this wonderful info originally. Didn't expect more replies. Have seen this guy twice more flying overhead. Think he's checking out all the birds at my feeder. They sure know when he's around because their warning cries are deafening! Thanks again for replying. I never would have known all that without your kindness. Much appreciated! Lynnmarie