These birds are another reason why I'm glad I took a mid-afternoon break at the green oasis of Furnace Creek today. I'd like to think that I would have been able to capture more of these beauties if I had just spent more time sitting still.
No complaints though; I'm very happy that these birds consented to a quick pose.
If anyone is interested, the Death Valley National Park web site includes a bird list.
The saga of (an inexperienced birder) identifying a hawk...
The first post in my guestbook about this bird was the thought that it might be a Cooper's hawk. According to the USGS page that I found, "The Sharp-shinned Hawk is most similar to the Cooper's Hawk." I posted this photo and my question in the Digital Grin photography forum in the hopes of attracting the attention of some photographers who are also birders. I got two answers there.
The initial reaction was from GraphyFotoz who told me this is a sharp-shinned hawk, identified by coarse brown streaks on the chest. This hawk is rare to uncommon in the area, so I guess I was very lucky to see it.
Then there were some more folks weighing in who agrees with the first guess that this guy is a Cooper's Hawk.
Well, it looks like it's one of the two. I suppose that having two answers is better than none, right? After reading both descriptions and looking at the photos - which honestly don't help me much! - I could be swayed by either argument. The things that jumped out at me...Gerry signed my guestbook with this: "As one who frequently birds the Furnace Creek area, I think you have photos of probably a Cooper's Hawk - based on the pale nape and all the other comparisons noted in other postings. Also, Cooper's are common here, not so for Sharpie's, which are very secretive as a rule."
The Cooper's Hawk "Dark crown contrasts with nape, and Tail ends in white tail band, back dark gray or gray-brown, underparts barred reddish and white."
And yet, the Sharp-shinned hawk "Tail long, barred, and ends with a square tip, adults with blue-gray back and wings, reddish barring on underparts." Yup, those things are true too.
Another comment I found interesting was from Jeff W over on Digital Grin: "you can see the field id of these 2 birds is not just hard but impossible. the best way is to [after you have seen a few ] tell the size. cooper is bigger sharpie is smaller but they are almost twins".
Links to descriptions of both birds on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds page:
Many thanks to everyone who jumped in to help with the identification of these beautiful birds. I'm looking forward to a future return to Death Valley not only to do some more hiking but also to spend some time sitting and watching the birds.
