Hi Claire, Found this old thread; thought I'd rehash the past. Ha! I can't help myself. I'm a hawk watcher. Your opening photos were undoubtedly an accipiter. The grey/black banded tail is the dead giveaway. The length of it is more pronounced than that of any buteo. The wing tips of a Red-shouldered Hawk come just about to the tip of the tail when perched. A Red-shouldered would never have grey/black as its tail colors and wouldn't have such a distinction between tip of wing to tip of tail. Also, notice how widely spaced the banding on the tail is; a RSHA juvenile would have narrowly-spaced light brown/dark brown banding on a much shorter, tapered tail. Juv RSHA would have heart-shaped streaking on chest down to the belly. Since you have familiarity with the small size of Sharpies and believed this to be too large, I'd day you had a juvenile Cooper's hawk here. Also, Blue Jays frequently imitate Red-shouldereds to freak out feeding birds and lay claim to what they leave behind. Tricksy birds, they are. Perhaps you've heard them do that. But you may have heard a RSHA in your woods as they seem to cling to the east coast year-round rather than fully migrate out. This post was edited by TMFF on Thu, Feb 7, 13 at 17:31

I live in the Tampa Bay Florida area and was lucky enough to have a pair of nesting Coopers Hawks on the grounds of the complex where I live. I was surprised to see that the juveniles remain around the nest until they are driven off as young adults. Like many young adult humans they do not like to leave the easy life at home. Here is a link that might be useful: Kids and Adults Go Green

Luc, you need to congratulate the birds for being so magnificent. We were fortunate to have them come so close and sit still long enough for us to get these pictures. We have wanted to share this tip since we read it but didn't have pictures to show what we meant. The Cooper's coming a few days ago prompted us to share this with our friend and he supplied the juvenile Sharp-shinned. That made it even better. Ruth, we saw your post and didn't comment for lack of pictures as stated above. We are glad you posted your wonderful picture here in profile because it shows the shape of the head more than in your other post and helps to strengthen our argument about head shape. Most of the time they move there head from side to side so you can see the shape. Most people post the pictures of them looking at you which makes this process a little harder to use. Nathan, maybe the shape and streaking are so similar between these species that it is part of the reason there is so much question as to which is which. That is why the shape of the head may be a better way to decide. Our second picture and Ruth's looks like the beak is a continuation of a line in the same plane as the top of the beak. You could almost lay a straightedge across it. The adult and the third picture, that you question, do not look like that. The beak and the head look like two separate curves that meet at an angle. Thank you Rachel, BnB

Christy, Your photos are even better enlarged, I could not figure out how to make them bigger before. I did find your Post on the Birdwatching Forum and saw where the prevailing view is that it is a juvenile Cooper's hawk and probably a female. As the others indicated it has the features of an accipiter. The size of the hawk points towards it being a Coopers Hawk rather than a Sharp-shinned hawk. It really doesn't have the right features for a goshawk and unless you are in the western part of Maryland you are not apt to have a goshawk in your backyard. This is a little too far south to see many goshawks. Comparing the hawk to the squirrel points it to be a rather large Cooper's hawk, which points towards it being a female since the females are larger than the males. You were real lucky to get such great shots of the hawk, they usually don't hang around long. Thanks for sharing the photos. Richard