![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Vickie-Anderson-Sharpie.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSharp Shinned Hawk. Photo credit: Vickie Anderson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cooper’s hawk. Photo credit: Brendan Klick <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n While resting (or in flight) the tail on Sharp-Shinned appears squared in shape compared to that of the Cooper\u2019s rounder appearance. Even in flight, the tail in Sharp-Shinned seems shorter and square shaped compared to a rounder and longer rounded tail in Cooper\u2019s hawk. While talking about the tail, the tail tip on Coooper\u2019s hawk has a wider white tip compared to a smaller or a narrow tail tip.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another really good field mark can be the positioning of the eye, in Cooper\u2019s eyes appear to be closer to the beak whereas in Sharp-Shinned eyes appear to be more centered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While in flight, the head in Sharp-Shinned appears small in relation to the overall body. Cooper\u2019s hawk in flight will have a larger head (more pronounced) in relation to the body. The wings on Sharp-Shinned appeared more \u2018pushed forward\u2019 whereas in Cooper\u2019s it appears almost straight. Also, look for a wider white band on the tail tip on Coopers during flight.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sharp-Shinned Hawk. Photo credit: Bonnie Ott <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cooper’s Hawk. Photo credit: Jean-Sebastian Mayer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Juveniles of these species can be really hard to identify, however, juvenile Cooper\u2019s hawks have thin dark stripes compared to coarse brown streaks on Sharp-Shinned hawks. Note the yellow eyes on the juvenile compared to the redder eyes on the adult. The head on Sharp-Shinned appears small and more grayish, however, Cooper\u2019s hawk has a more orange-buffish head.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the un-missable fieldmark that I have noticed\/learned for adult Cooper\u2019s and Sharp-Shinned hawk are the difference in coloration in the head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The head of Sharp-Shinned hawk appears as if it\u2019s wearing a \u2018Hoodie\u2019 whereas Cooper\u2019s hawk looks like it\u2019s wearing a \u2018Beret\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cooper’s Hawk. Photo credit: Ivan Lipton<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sharp-Shinned Hawk. Photo credit: David McQuade <\/p>\n\n\n\n I hope this was useful and you will be able to tell the difference between these common backyard hawks when you see one the next time.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cooper\u2019s hawk and Sharp-Shinned hawk are one of the most common accipters found in the US. These sort of \u2018backyard\u2019 birds however can be very challenging to ID. But with some of the common field ID marks, this could be less hectic than it usually is. Cooper\u2019s hawk are slightly longer (16.5\u201d) than Sharp-Shinned Hawk (11\u201d), however even Cooper\u2019s are almost 6 inches bigger than Sharpies, without these birds side by side this field mark can be hard to use in the field where you see them for a brief second or two. One of the most common field-marks that you usually find online is that of the difference between the tails in these two similar species.\u00a0 Sharp Shinned Hawk. Photo credit: Vickie Anderson Cooper’s hawk. Photo credit: Brendan Klick While resting (or in flight) the tail on Sharp-Shinned appears squared in shape compared to that of the Cooper\u2019s rounder appearance. Even in flight, the tail in Sharp-Shinned seems shorter and square shaped compared to a rounder and longer rounded tail in Cooper\u2019s hawk. While talking about the tail, the tail tip on Coooper\u2019s hawk has a wider white tip compared to a smaller or a narrow tail tip.\u00a0 Another really good field mark can be the positioning of the eye, in Cooper\u2019s eyes appear to be closer to the beak whereas in Sharp-Shinned eyes appear to be more centered. While in flight, the head in Sharp-Shinned appears small in relation to the overall body. Cooper\u2019s hawk in flight will have a larger head (more pronounced) in relation to the body. The wings on Sharp-Shinned appeared more \u2018pushed forward\u2019 whereas in Cooper\u2019s it appears almost straight. Also, look for a wider white band on the tail tip on Coopers during flight.\u00a0 Sharp-Shinned Hawk. Photo credit: Bonnie Ott Cooper’s Hawk. Photo credit: Jean-Sebastian Mayer Juveniles of these species can be really hard to identify, however, juvenile Cooper\u2019s hawks have thin dark stripes compared to coarse brown streaks on Sharp-Shinned hawks. Note the yellow eyes on the juvenile compared to the redder eyes on the adult. The head on Sharp-Shinned appears small and more grayish, however, Cooper\u2019s hawk has a more orange-buffish head.\u00a0 One of the un-missable fieldmark that I have noticed\/learned for adult Cooper\u2019s and Sharp-Shinned hawk are the difference in coloration in the head. The head of Sharp-Shinned hawk appears as if it\u2019s wearing a \u2018Hoodie\u2019 whereas Cooper\u2019s hawk looks like it\u2019s wearing a \u2018Beret\u2019.\u00a0 Cooper’s Hawk. Photo credit: Ivan Lipton Sharp-Shinned Hawk. Photo credit: David McQuade I hope this was useful and you will be able to tell the difference between these common backyard hawks when you see one the next time.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[47,43,49,45,44,48],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195,"href":"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Brendan-Klick-Coopers-1024x768.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Bonnie-Ott-Sharpie.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Jean-Sebastien-Mayer-Coopers.png\")
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fmbirders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/David-McQuade.png\")
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