I suggest visiting Cornell Lab of Ornithology's "All about Birds" webpage. You can listen to the calls of hawks (since you got to hear this suspicious bird's call). That might be the key to IDing this bird. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/id The most educated answer I can give is that this is a dark morph red-tailed hawk. Its bill is just too broad to be a red-shouldered hawk (and I have not known red-shouldered hawks plumage to vary that considerably, as red-tailed hawks are known to do). Now the fact that you're in Florida is interesting since dark-morph red-tailed hawks are more known to occur in the Plains and western U.S.(see Harlan's hawks and western red-tailed hawks for images). So, unless this is a falconry bird that escaped, this is probably a rare bird to find in Florida. Would love to hear the opinion of a birding expert. This post was edited by TMFF on Mon, Jan 28, 13 at 22:31

Thanks! So when do their tails get the reddish plumage? This one had brown striped tail feathers, I thought that the adults had red tails but I know very little about red tailed hawks so I thought I would ask, thanks! Oh, also, what's that whistling noise that it is making? There is a redtailed hawk couple that lives in my area, I used To see them Together all the time, now they seem to be hanging out solo mostly, I wondered if this one might be one of their "kids" from this year or year before, this one's plumage looks a lot darker than the male and female I usually see in the area.

The long tail is typical of a Coopers Hawk. Broadwings tails barely clear the end of the wings. Coopers hawks will go to great lengths to capture prey. They are very vocal with a loud series of Kak Kak kaks when alarmed. Here is a link that might be useful: If you love nature you will love Frogpatch.com

The caterpillars of pink-spotted hawk moths occur in MANY variations of color and markings, but the one marking they all have in common is vertical stripes on the head, like yours. Most of them also have the marking on the top of the body near the head like yours. I can find no other sphinx moth cats with that combination of markings, so that must be what yours is. Congratulations! I've seen these beautiful moths nectaring on my moon flowers when I lived in the country, but never found a caterpillar - My book also calls them the sweet potato moth, because they use sweet potatoes as host plant, also morning glories. MGs grow in an area of my neighbor's yard behind a brick 'shed' that adjoins my yard - think I'll go look for caterpillars! Sherry