Posted by Don Roberson (165.227.228.241) on May 02, 2000 at 19:21:45:
I agree with Gary Potter than single shots of hawks are very difficult, and can often be misleading. But to add to the levity and increase the species count for the bird on the left (now up to four choices), my first reaction was a juv. Broad-winged Hawk, and I still think that's a reasonable guess (assuming we are being mislead by the side view of the tail). It does "look" like a small Buteo (small bill) and I'm impressed by the combo of pale head and heavy malar stripe. This fits young Broad-winged and the facial pattern looks to strong to me for Red-shouldered. Also I see very little markings on the underwing coverts and base of primaries, again consistent with the "white-underside with dark edges" appearance of Broad-winged.
The righthand bird looks like an Accipiter and I think the jizz is Sharp-shinned. Perhaps Joe chose this one because it shows an apparent "rounded" tip to the tail (said to be a Cooper's mark) but to me the streaking is too broad & blurry (not droplet-like), the neck is too short, the body too compact, the tail length too short for Cooper's. We could be way off on size, but imm. Goshawk should have streaked undertail coverts, and this does not seem to have those. Also not much actual white to the tip of the tail, again more like Sharpy.
However, hawks are horrible.. to identify, that is.