This hawk and her mate have become increasingly frequent visitors to my yard with its bird feeders. I think she is a Cooper’s hawk, and not a sharp-shinned, and here’s why:
Cooper’s are bigger, 14-20 inches – crow size – as opposed to 10-14 inches – dove or jay size – for the sharp-shinned. This is a big bird. Eyes are closer to the front of the head than those of a sharp-shinned.
Feathers on top of head are darker than those behind the neck, giving the bird a capped appearance,
as opposed to a uniformly dark cap and nape in the sharp-shinned.
The Cooper’s long tail has a rounded rather than a square tip. What a feather coat she sports!
Listen to the call: It may be a post-dinner song, somewhat defiant, as if to say: “Well, I have to eat, too!”
But check out these links from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website and decide for yourself:
Identifying the Cooper’s Hawk
Identifying the Sharp-shinned Hawk
Tricky Bird Identifications
Cooper’s Hawk photo
As a somewhat belated warning, the flickers call after-the-fact in imitation. Their normally slower-paced mellow cry becomes faster and more shrill: “Be mindful: Hawk was just here and may come again!”
Sweet Planet Poems 
Here’s a Wikipedia comparison of a male Cooper’s with a female sharp-shinned (raptor females generally larger than the males)
Looks like we have a Cooper’s in the yard.
pretty large, isn’t she?
Hi BB, sorry about the audio tape. I wonder why. sometimes when I can’t play things, my computer tells me I have to download updated versions of players, etc. Don’t know if that’s the problem. And the orange eye color must have a function. I’ll check it out.
I would say that, just on visuals, I’d agree that it’s a Cooper’s.
Love her orange eye colour and wonder its purpose. Marvellous to have these beautiful birds of prey in your garden.
(I couldn’t get the MP3 to play. 😦 )
The flickers fooled me for a while. I couldn’t understand why the birds were still out and about when the hawk was calling. I finally figured out it was the flicker!
Thanks, Laz. It is just possible we have two kinds of hawks visiting, the Cooper’s and a sharp-shinned. Not sure yet.
So beautiful and you got great pictures, identification can be challenging!. Cooper’s visit my wooded backyard, their presence only noticed after a collective vanishing act 🙂 How interesting about the flickers!.
Great shots, Beautiful Bird!