Friday, February 7, 2014

Sharp-Shinned Hawk

I was going through some pictures and found one of a sharp-shinned hawk I photographed many years ago while hiking along Henry's Fork in the Uinta Mountains of northeastern Utah. I think this is the only sharp-shinned hawk I've ever seen, or at least seen and identified. 
Sharp-shinned hawk
It looks quite a bit like a Cooper's hawk, but it is smaller, has a proportionally smaller head and it has a different call. The sharp-shinned hawk has a long tail with broad, blackish and gray bands across it. The legs are yellow. The brown head is streaked with white, the underparts are white with rufous or tawny bars and the thighs are rufous and often barred with white. 

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