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!

It is a red tailed but Im sure some would mistakenly ID it as a swainsons due to the very dark face and chest. The key here is the lack of white on the face. Nathan

Oh, sorry, I didn't mean they were hunting, they were just gliding around in circles, very, very high, from what I have read, this is common behavior for red-tailed hawks around this time of year and has something to do with mating. I was able to get a good look with my binoculars and they were definitely hawks. They have been doing this lately, more so on sunny days, usually at least two, sometimes more, but that day there were more of them than I have ever seen! Very pretty!

Thanks for the guess, Orrin. When I looked up Buteo buteo on the internet, the wing pattern and size was almost identical. But then I noticed the tail. The Buzzard has a rounded tail, and the one I saw has a distinct V-notch in the tail. Thanks, tho. Candy