Group of young red-tailed hawks

[Bill Kosar]

This picture was taken by a friend in New Mexico ( I know this is cobirds but NM is close and we have a lot of red-tailed hawks around here!). I have never seen anything like it, it appears to be a group of young red-tailed hawks.

 Comments?

Bill Kosar

El Paso county 

[Ajit Antony]

Hi Bill.

While a juvenile RTHA like the adult has a belly band, it does not have streaking going up into the chest or into the lower belly. Together with a prominent white superciliary line, I'm inclined to think in terms of American Goshawk, which I think would be rare next to someone's house, unless that house is somewhere in the mountains surrounded by pine woods.

I can't see the tail in any of the except for the second one from the left and there's a suggestion of a longer tail, and theoretically they could be juvenile Cooper's Hawk which has a white superciliary which would be shorter and less prominent. However Cooper's Hawk juveniles have narrow comma-shaped streaks on the breast and unmarked in the lower abdomen, which we use at hawk watches as a distinguishing feature from juvenile Sharp-shinned which has heavier streaks all the way to the lower abdomen, so that species looks ‘dirty’ in front. These hawks have fairly broad streaks.

All four hawks have feathered tarsi almost reaching their toes, suggesting a more northern raptor like American Goshawk (the name was changed within the past year from Northern Goshawk).

Someone may ask “Why juvenile?” Look at the yellow iris. Most juveniles have yellow irises, compared to orange or brown in adults.

These are my thought processes. I'll be interested in other opinions I can learn from.

Ajit Antony

Volunteer hawk watcher at Dinosaur Ridge Hawk Watch, CO

Volunteer doing 4 Winter Raptor Survey Routes in Colorado for HMA

Central Park, Denver

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[Todd Deininger]

I am leaning towards Cooper’s Hawk. I have seen juvenile’s in groups like this after fledging.  Of course I never have my camera, so here is a bad cell phone pic.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S71834464

If they were flying it would be a kettle, what do you call a group of hawks hanging out o the lawn.

Todd Deininger
Longmont, CO

Latest on Flickr

Follow me on inaturalist at toddwd1

youtube.com/@DeiningerProductions

"If every man would help his neighbor, no man would be without help"

-- Bruce Lee

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[Peter Burke]

Q: What do you call a group of birds hanging out on a lawn?

A: A Picnic!

:)

Best,

Peter Burke

Managing Editor, Colorado Birds

edi...@cobirds.org

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[Bill Kosar]

These hawks were in an large Urban park with lots of large mature cottonwoods in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Houses on one side of the park and a road and some ponds on the other side. 

Bill

[Bill Kosar]

I just received another picture of a single hawk from this group. Seems to be a consensus that these are Coopers hawks.

Bill

[Patrick O'Driscoll]

Several years ago a resident Cooper's Hawk pair in Denver City Park fledged four young, and for the next month or so, they mobbed around together, chasing fox squirrels (which laughed at them) and otherwise practicing for adulthood. 

Patrick O'Driscoll

Denver

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[Scott Rashid]

Cooper’s Hawks 

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