Bird ID: “Mystery Hawk at my Birdbath”

My friend and fellow club member Sue Killeen sent me these photos along with the heading “Mystery Hawk at my Birdbath” in the hopes that I could identifying it. Sue lives in a very wooded area near French Creek State Park in PA (corner of Berks, Montgomery and Chester Counties).

She wrote…… “It is about the size of an American Crow.  I did not see it in flight as it ‘hopped’ into the nearby branches soaking wet and then flew off into the tree canopy.  It did not call. What seemed interesting was that I still had Cardinals going to the feeders on the other side of the yard about 50 feet away although it did get some Blue Jays excited when it flew into the trees. What I can add;  I know there are Cooper’s Hawks about.  And I have seen and heard Broadwings about 2-3 weeks back (hard to miss their cries).  I have seen Red-tailed Hawks with nesting material so they are nesting nearby although I do not think this is a Red-tailed Hawk.”

This makes for a wonderful opportunity to study some of our area raptors and Sue is correct in narrowing it down to either a buteo or an accipiter. If anyone wants to follow along it may be helpful to have a Field Guide to the the birds of North America handy.

The first thing is to age the hawk.  We know it is not a juvenile or immature as the markings on the breast are not vertical. It may not be a full adult but is certainly well on its way to being one. Sub-adult? 

The most obvious clue is the tail pattern which you have captured well. On an accipiter (Cooper’s Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk) the dark / light bands are pretty much of equal (broad) width. The bands on Sue’s bird are of different widths. See the bottom photo.

An accipiter would show contrasting crown and nape coloration, not to mention the orangey tone to the cheeks. The back would be grayish and the barring on the belly would be finer and more orangey. The tail would not only be a lot longer but the bands would pretty much all be of equal width. Also adult accipters would show a red eye. It is a yellow eye on immature birds. The bird in the photo has a brown eye. So we can eliminate accipiters and now concentrate on buteos.

A Red-shouldered Hawk by this age would begin to show signs of a red shoulder patch as well as a redder (not brown tone) head. The broad dark tail bands are usually separated by a thin white band and the barring on the chest and belly is thin and orangey-red in color.

A Red-tailed Hawk does not have this type of of breast / belly markings, normally it is a belly band. The tail bands would be thin with the exception of the terminal one and by this age it may even have begun to show some red coloration. The tip of the primaries (wing tips) are of about equal length with the tip of the tail.

Sue’s bird shows a brownish eye. Even colored head pattern. Rich brown bib / breast and barring on belly. The tail shows a broad terminal band followed by a slightly smaller lighter and dark band then a narrow light band. With my eye I can see that should the wings come down to meet the tail, the tail would only project a short distance past the end of the primaries. This makes it a Broad-winged Hawk. An unexpected bird to have coming to your backyard.