Sass - Where are you in Lakeland? I live here too and seeing an Allen's is very rare. I don't know if you know Joe M who lives in Christina but he had one a couple winters ago. Our area usually gets hummers starting around now as migrants and then those that come in Jan. or so stay through till about April. A few of us here in Lakeland have had banders come and band and id the birds as part of a 10 year study to see where they migrate to in the summer. If you are interested, please let me know and I can get in touch with one of them. Rufous are similiar to Allens, and friend and I both had one last winter. Please contact me through GW. I also posted about recording sightings through Audubon. I am not doubting your id of your bird, just really excited cause I know it is unsual for them to be here. I know it is something that should be documented. Congrats on your hummers!

Thank you for your input and this is why I'm asking for help. This is not a small bird. It's the largest hawk-like bird I've seen other than eagles at a distance or vultures. It was the size that first drew my attention to it. On our property, we always get Cooper's hawks. They make nearly a daily hunt at our feeder area so am very familiar with their sizing and this particular bird is easily half again as large as the largest Cooper's I've seen, perhaps twice that size. It is ALWAYS drawn to the pond, totally ignores the birds at the feeders, and they do not appear afraid of it, and instead of flushing from their cover (vines on old trees and large junipers around the feeders) just go about their business. Yes, it's the same bird each time. I'm not seeing one bird take the fish and photographing the other. It was eating the fish when we got the photo below. We are under a very heavy snow cover and rural, with lots of ponds in the area but since our rivers are frozen over, it's a given the ponds are too. Water and fish would be scarce and lots of animals are drawn to our pond since the heavy spring flow keeps it thawed almost perpetually. I could appreciate a fishing bird showing up here under these circumstances when it wouldn't normally frequent our property. The feathers on the back of this bird are dark, with only blotches of white when its back is to you, there is no pattern you can discern other than the faintest suggestion of a barred tail and it's is a muddy brown/grey over dark grey. I'm not looking for a 'rare' bird, but accuracy since I submit birding data and I'd sure like to get this one correct, or I'd just have to log it as unknown.

It looks from here to be a juvenile Cooper's Hawk, as already stated. The tail on Accipiters is long with wide bands, and this bird has that. As for the differences between Accipiters, juvenile Cooper's Hawks have fine brown chest streaks that usually come short of the belly, and this bird has that. So, good call.

Adult male Cooper's, probably a little bit smaller than an American Crow by comparison. Pretty bird, lovely shot. :) And I am so late in responding because I haven't checked the Raptor forum in ages! :)