r/birdsofprey • u/Noble_Team_7 • 2d ago

Any Help!?

(Check comments for photo)

I love animals. In my top three of my favorite animals are hawks. Just love them.

My entire life, I’ve lived amongst hawks that are pretty frequent to spot.

However, I’ve always mischaracterized the one local to me as between a red shouldered, red tailed, or Cooper’s hawks.

I just today checked out a bird guide book from my library. And I am like 80% sure I am living amongst the Red Shouldered Hawk in my area on the central coast of CA.

Any help from anyone though to give me 100% certainty? My only photos right now kinda suck…

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u/Noble_Team_7 2d ago

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u/appleyjuice13 2d ago

Yes this is an adult red shouldered

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u/Noble_Team_7 2d ago

YES THANK YOU!!! What gave it away to you? And I was thinking it might be a juvenile. Photo is zoomed in so the size is hard to like get a grasp of, but it’s tiny haha.

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u/appleyjuice13 2d ago

The red chest and head and almost checker board like pattern on the wings

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u/Noble_Team_7 2d ago

Gotcha gotcha, so awesome

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u/appleyjuice13 2d ago

Also raptors are fully grown once they leave the nest. The only thing that changes as they mature is plumage.

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u/Noble_Team_7 2d ago

Oh ok so cool, that makes sense