I have a friend who is very good with Hawk ID's. In reference to the Cooper's Hawks, she always says, "The eye never lies." So, I am assuming that the Cooper's eye is helpful with the ID. I have one here and it hunts in my yard around my bird feeders. As I was looking out the window at the plethora of Grackles (YUCK), Starlings (Double-YUCK), and Red Winged Blackbirds the other day, that hawk came swooping in fast and low, and grabbed himself a RWB for breakfast. Wow! I wish that it could have been one of the other birds, but I am always in AWE of the raptors. They are such majestic creatures. Unlike most people who feed songbirds, I truly don't mind the hawks snatching a meal when they can. I just hope they won't choose my BB's!

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

looks like I got a picture of a different hawk.. My "dove eater" has different under-the-wing markings than a red tail. Thanks for the ID... I'll keep the camera out and hopefully I will catch him one of these days.

It is definitely not an accipiter, this bird has teh head and teh thick and short toes of a buteo. Most likely a juvenile broad-winged hawk, or maybe a red-shouldered hawk.