Okay, let this post be cautionary, in a way. Juvenile Cooper's Hawks and juvenile American Goshawks look VERY similar. VERY. And, there aren't many surefire ways of telling the difference between them. We had some trouble with this Cooper's that has the white eyebrows of a Goshawk, and it was big like one. It took a while, but I found the two best ways to tell; How speckled is the back? As you can tell from the photos, the back is pretty speckled, but look up a juvenile Goshawk. I'll wait. *waits* *somehow takes a screenshot* AAH! How did that happen? Oh right, look at how much more white is on the Goshawk's back. This is a good way, but sometimes it can be hard to tell. The other way is to look at the undertail coverts. ...which apparently means the butt feathers under the tail. If the butt feathers are all white, it's a Cooper's. If they have speckles, it's a American Goshawk! If you look at my pics, everything else points to Goshawk-the size, the wavy lines on the tail, the white eyebrow-but not these. Now you may enjoy some Common Goldeneyes.
--Written by Ima
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| Common Goldeneyes |
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| Common Goldeneyes |
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| Common Goldeneyes |
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| Common Goldeneyes |
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| Common Goldeneyes |
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| Common Goldeneyes and a Red-breasted Merganser |
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| Common Goldeneyes and Red-breasted Mergansers |
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| Common Goldeneye and a Red-breasted Merganser |
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| Red-breasted Merganser |
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| Cooper's Hawk |
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| Cooper's Hawk |
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| Cooper's Hawk |
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| Cooper's Hawk |
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| Cooper's Hawk |
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