This bird isn’t a peregrine falcon, but a young sharp-shinned hawk. Seeing a peregrine falcon in your backyard would be extremely rare. Sharp-shinned hawks, on the other hand, love to hang around backyards because they feed on songbirds that come to feeders. You can tell this is a young sharp-shinned hawk because of the heavy streaking on the belly, the white spots on the brown back, the large dark bands on the tail, and the large brown eye. Also, though you can’t see it from this picture, a sharp-shinned hawk has a squared-off tail.
This bird isn’t a peregrine falcon, but a young sharp-shinned hawk. Seeing a peregrine falcon in your backyard would be extremely rare. Sharp-shinned hawks, on the other hand, love to hang around backyards because they feed on songbirds that come to feeders. You can tell this is a young sharp-shinned hawk because of the heavy streaking on the belly, the white spots on the brown back, the large dark bands on the tail, and the large brown eye. Also, though you can’t see it from this picture, a sharp-shinned hawk has a squared-off tail.
Posted on 30-Mar-08 at 4:52 pm | Permalink