These photos were taken in September of 2018, here on our farm. When I first saw this bird, it seemed very big to me and I wondered if it could be a juvenile Goshawk. But I'd never seen one anywhere around here before and this bird was amazingly unafraid of me. It sat on top of the chicken yard fence as though it was quite accustomed to being there. We had lost a couple chickens not long ago... After taking a zillion photos and studying them, I decided it was just a very big female Cooper's. But while gathering photos for family calendars I make each year, I came across these photos and started wondering all over again. The National Geo field guide says that Goshawks have thin, pale, wavy bands bordering the dark bands on their tails. So, in spite of that suspicious pale supercilium, I guess this is a Cooper's Hawk. Comments welcome.
Paul Sullivan confirmed Cooper's Hawk with reasons:
This bird's head does show a supercilium, but it may not be enough to make this a Goshawk. The National Geographic guide shows an immature Cooper's with a similar supercilium. The breast (photo #1) looks white, with fine dark spots. More white than dark. That points toward Cooper's. The width of the dark and gray tail bands are roughly equal which points toward Cooper's.
I don't see any thin whitish lines dividing the dark tail bands from the gray bands.
The tail bands aren't wavy.(photos 3, 4, & 6)
