The small-headed yardhawk

Raptors are abundant in California. Lots of open space and lots of rodents, snakes, songbirds and the like to hunt. Hawks regularly visit our backyard, hoping to nab one of the birds that swarm our feeders. Cooper’s Hawks are the most frequent visitors, with Red-shouldered Hawks appearing now and then. We were recently treated to a visit by the rather rare (at least around here) Sharp-shinned Hawk.

An immature Cooper’s Hawk on our back fence. Cooper’s are accipiters—short-winged, long-tailed hawks that specialize in hunting birds through vegetative cover, as opposed to falcons, who excel at pursuing birds out in the open.

An immature Sharp-shinned Hawk on the same fence. Sharpies, as they’re called, are the smallest North American accipiter. They’re supposed to be difficult to distinguish from Cooper’s Hawks, especially for dilettante birders like Marla and me. The first thing that struck me when I saw this bird is how small it was compared to the Cooper’s we usually see. (Compare how big each is relative to the seven-inch fence boards they’re both perched on.) The Sharpie was about the size of a jay, while the Cooper’s was more like a crow. (Large female Sharp-shinned can be similar in size to male Cooper’s though.) There are some other differences, too. The Sharp-shinned has a smaller head relative to its body, and the appearance of a shorter neck. The barring on the breast has more of a reddish cast on the Sharp-shinned. And lastly, the characteristic for which the Sharp-shinned is named: look at how skinny this bird’s leg is. How can those legs even support the bird, let alone snag prey? The Cooper’s legs are considerably stouter. These photos accentuate the differences between the species. Differences that show so nicely in the photos are a lot more difficult to see in the field.

A splendid adult Cooper’s Hawk on our side fence.

Here’s an immature Cooper’s that has come down from the fence and landed in the backyard. These hawks usually ambush their prey, but in this case all the potential prey have spotted this guy and either fled or hidden in the undergrowth. The young Cooper’s is pretty sure there’s a little bird hiding somewhere down there.

A Red-shouldered Hawk in the avocado tree that lurches over our back fence. We have at least one breeding pair of this species within earshot of our house. They’re among the most vocal of hawks—we hear their unmistakeable call throughout the day. Red-shouldereds are buteos—broad-winged, short-tailed hawks that tend toward rodent and reptile prey, but sometimes go for birds.

This gorgeous little Kestrel was not in our yard, but in nearby Montaña de Oro State Park. The diminutive falcon—smallest of North American hawks—used to be called Sparrow Hawk, but it probably dines more on insects than birds. They’re quite common in open terrain around here.