Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawk

Over the past couple weeks I happened to get a couple decent in-flight photos of two species of hawk very difficult to distinguish: Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawk. The first photo is a Sharp-shinned Hawk I photographed flying over Nalle Bunny Run Wildlife Preserve on 1/9/2021. The second is a Cooper's Hawk flying over Lake Creek Trail in northwest Austin on 1/16/2021. The main differences these photos show are the angle of the wings and size of the heads. The Sharp-shinned often holds its wings pitched just a little bit forward and has a smaller head, protruding out in front of the wings less. The Cooper's usually has wings held more straightly out to the sides and has a larger head protruding out in front of the wings more.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

So why are these two species so similar?

I can only speculate. They have similar ecological niches, both specializing in hunting other birds in the woods. So they both have broad, rounded wings and long tails. Why such similar plumage? They may have also had a common ancestor, and speciated as two different populations found slightly different specialization.

Publicado el enero 18, 2021 03:56 TARDE por mikaelb mikaelb

Observaciones

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Gavilán Pecho Canela (Accipiter striatus)

Observ.

mikaelb

Fecha

Enero 9, 2021 a las 10:13 MAÑANA CST

Descripción

Taken while recording the January virtual bird walk on Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve.

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Gavilán de Cooper (Accipiter cooperii)

Observ.

mikaelb

Fecha

Enero 16, 2021 a las 09:38 MAÑANA CST

Descripción

Taken on Lake Creek Trail in Williamson County.

Comentarios

Nice comparison and description. Thank you!

Publicado por sawwhet hace alrededor de 3 años

Thanks Susan! I realized I had the two recent photos and thought they made a good opportunity to write a little bit about them.

Publicado por mikaelb hace alrededor de 3 años

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