Florida still has plenty of wildlife but you don't usually see it driving down a parkway. The panthers, which are the same as mountain lions, are making a comeback as well as bears. When I was a kid you seldom heard of a bear sighting in Florida...........now I hear of them quiet often. Bobcats, foxes racoons, possums, otters, etc are plentiful. You just have to know where to find them. They are after all wild animals. Sea turtles can be seen around June and July coming to shore to lay their eggs and it is nothing to see Dolphin and Manatees if you are out in a boat. My parents live outside a town called Clewiston, on the southern side of Lake Okeechobee, and they have gators, bobcats, racoons, otters, foxes, gopher tortoises, and a wide variety of bird species which visit their property. I even have racoons, possums, about 5 different type lizards (including Knight Anoles and Iguanas), geckos, a gopher tortoise, numerous types of birds including a red tail hawk and parrots, numerous species of butterflys and I live in town. I have a half acre lot as does everyone on my street so we're not crammed up like some towns but it is still in town. Unfortunately development is crowding our wildlife, but thanks to individuals making their property small refuges and conservation groups do their part we do still have quite a lot of wildlife here.

This is undoubtedly a juvenile Northern Goshawk and a FANTASTIC find! They are not commonly seen, let alone perched in the open. They are of the genus Accipiter, and are closely related to the more common Cooper's Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk. What makes this a Goshawk is: (in comparison to the similar Cooper's), the tail bands are wavy and have pale outlines to the dark bands, and also the upperparts are heavily marked and rather decorative. The massive white eyebrow (supercilium) CAN occur on juvenile Cooper's and Sharp-shinned but it tends to be more prominent in juvenile Goshawks. But the tail and the upperpart patterning are what clinches it here. This is a classic example of a juvenile Goshawk, straight out of a field guide! AMAZING bird. Glad you posted. Which state was this seen (and when)? Interesting it let you come close. I have to say, though, that the adults during nesting season are notorious for attacking and injuring humans that happen upon their nesting area. This post was edited by TMFF on Sat, Oct 11, 14 at 14:24

Before this one, I'd only seen a cooper's, aside from flyovers, once since i started bird watching. It was perched on neighbors HAM radio antenna, and I was able to get a few pics of it. Before I started bird watching, I saw, what I now am pretty sure was, a cooper's hawk try to catch a blue jay that was perched in one of my crepe Myrtle trees, right in front of me, he missed though! Everything I've ever reAd about cooper's, describes them as being "uncommon" in urban areas and lists them As "forest dwelling hawks" which is what made me doubt this hawk was a cooper's, and also why I usually assume it's a red tailed when I see hawks in busy/urban areas, now I'll make sure to take a closer look! Thanks!

Catherinet is correct. The ID of Cooper's Hawk can be made by the tail.