Posted by David Fix (206.13.45.113) on May 04, 2000 at 15:07:37:
In glancing over my post, I see I overlooked a point. The accipiter has a messy and dark-looking underparts pattern, in which the ground color seems dark with pale areas showing. If this were a young Cooper's Hawk, I would think the pattern would be mostly pale with thin darker lines or elongated 'drips' much as Don Roberson suggests. I have no explanation for the tail shape. Since the bird would first molt and replace central rectrices and the molt would progress toward the edge of the tail, the inner tail feathers COULD be regrown fully, leaving shorter outer rectrices. . . but then I would expect the underparts pattern to become more adult-like as well, since the bird would then be in its first full summer and would by then undergone some sort of body plumage transformation in its first prealternate molt. . . correct? So that leaves the shorter-looking outer rectrices as unexplained if this is a Sharp-shin.