Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: Glenn Bartley on November 22, 2010, 03:42:42 pm
Title: Cooper's Hawk
Post by: Glenn Bartley on November 22, 2010, 03:42:42 pm
I just love watching these guys cruise around the neighborhood terrorizing the songbirds. Such awesome birds!!
My first reaction when I saw this image on my LCD was that I wish he had banked a bit. But this pose is kind of growing on me. What about you? What do you think?
Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D Shutter speed: 1/1600 sec Aperture: 8 ISO: 400 Focal length: 500mm + 1.4x
Title: Re: Cooper's Hawk
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on November 22, 2010, 04:02:31 pm
I think I find this pose more satisfying (and exciting) than a more conventional "banked" pose, which would look more like an illustration for a field guide.
This dude means business! Nice shot.
Eric
Title: Re: Cooper's Hawk
Post by: wolfnowl on November 23, 2010, 01:11:53 am
I think Eric's right. This shows the bird really well, especially the banding on that long accipiter tail!
Mike.
Title: Re: Cooper's Hawk
Post by: bjammin on December 06, 2010, 06:20:29 pm
Great Shot! I know how hard it is to pan with a bird of prey. My only question how do you know it's a Coopers Hawk and not a Sharp Shinned Hawk? I've never been able to figure how two birds that look, at least to my eye, the same except for size can be distinguished. We had one in our back yard the day before yesterday and I spent a lot of time examining it with binoculars but could not be certain which bird it was. It certainly looked like your picture but this website confirms the difficulty in distinguishing the two: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/accipiterIDtable.htm (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/accipiterIDtable.htm)
bjammin
Title: Re: Cooper's Hawk
Post by: Lonnie Utah on December 07, 2010, 04:14:31 pm
Ascipiter cooperii? I never really was a birder and it's been too long since grad school....
Nice shot. You bird shooters are a dedicated bunch...
Title: Re: Cooper's Hawk
Post by: Geoff Wittig on December 08, 2010, 02:02:26 pm
We have both Sharp-shins and Cooper's in the woods next to our house, and we beleive the Cooper's is a resident, as it snatches a songbird off our feeder with some regularity.
Two features seem consistently helpful in telling them apart, at least to me. First is the tail, especially when perched. The tail on the sharpie tends to look square-cut, while the Cooper's looks a bit rounded. Sort of like the difference between a flat and filbert brush, if you're a painter. Second is the overall 'gestalt' of the birds' size and build. Cooper's hawks look, well, big, like a crow or pileated woodpecker in size. Sharp shin's look kind of scrawny or spindly, like a songbird someone stretched on the rack.
Of course, I could be fooling myself. There's a natural tendency among birders to default to the less common, more exotic of two options when ID is in doubt. Then every sharpie looks like a Cooper's.
Title: Re: Cooper's Hawk
Post by: bjammin on December 08, 2010, 07:35:04 pm
Thanks Geoff,
Identification can be a problem with some birds. Don't get me started on female sparrows, that is a whole can of worms. I will look at the tail the next time I see one of these birds in the neighborhood. Now I just need to save up for the 500 mm lens I really want so I can bring home the evidence.
Bjammin
Title: Re: Cooper's Hawk
Post by: telyt on December 13, 2010, 12:16:20 pm