FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Re: accipiter id - new question for me

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Charlie Muse and TN-Birders:

This is not always useful but it can help.

If your Accipter is near Blue Jay size it is a Sharp-shinned Hawk or
ff it is the size of a female American Kestrel it is a Sharp-shinned.

If you Accipter is near American Crow size it is a Cooper's Hawk.

It is probably rare for either a Cooper's to be as small as a Sharp-shinned
or for a Sharp-shinned to be as large as a Cooper's.  They really don't
overlap very often in size.  Peterson's hawks give female kestrels as the
same size as a male Sharp-shinned,

The following measurements are for body lengths and given in inches:

American Crow            17 to 21.0 inches (sexes combined)
Cooper's Hawk             14.75 inches to 19.25 inches (sexes combined)
Sharp-shinned Hawk    10.13 to 13.5 inches (sexes combined) (Peterson's = 9
to 11 inches male) and
(Peterson's = 11 to 13 inches females).
Yellow-shafted Flicker    12 to 14 inches (length longer than female
Sharp-shinned according to Peterson's).
Brown Thrasher              11.5 inches
Blue Jay                          11 to 12.5  inches (sexes combined)
American Kestrel           9 to 12  inches (sexes combined)
Northern Mockingbird    9 to  11 inches (same length as male Sharp-shinned
according to Peterson's)

This works very well on a perched bird.  In flight there are so many other
considerations so that is another consideration.

I used mainly Ralph S. Palmer's  "Handbook of North American Birds (Vol.
4-5) Dirunal Raptors" for the hawks  and Thomas S. Roberts'  "A Manual for
the Idintification of The Birds of Minnesota and Neighboring States" for
some of the non-raptor species.  Also threw in Peterson's Field Guide Birds
of Eastern and Central North America and Peterson's Field Guide Hawks of
North America.

The European Accipters and such I will leave to the experts and
professionals.

I thought you guys would find this a fun exercise.

Let's go birding....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Charlie"
"TN-Bird" <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 9:44 PM
Subject: [TN-Bird] accipiter id - new question for me


> Hi folks,
>
> We decided it was an adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk (SSHA).  Small red
> eyes set far forward.  Check. Top of head just slightly darker than
> rest of dorsum. Check.  No pale band behind head.  Check.  Very thin
> yellow legs.  Check.  Fine rufous banding across the breast and
> abdomen, rufus cheeks, equal dark and light bands on tail.  It was
> all there.
>
> So then we got out the field guides to see if there was anything to
> be learned of this entertaining occasion.  Went throught the usual
> field guides and also Kaufmann's "Advanced Birding."  But "Raptors of
> the World" gave me pause for thought.  The illustrations of the
> different subspecies of SSHA stunned me.  I've only ever birded south
> of Texas once, and didn't see this species.  I had no idea what
> variability there is.  Separating this guy from Cooper's was harder
> than from it's conspecifics.
>
> Good birding,
> Charlie


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