Well, if it's a harrier either it's an immy male with an exceptionally
yellow eye (assuming the description is correct), or an adult male.
If the latter, I'd assume the original poster would've made our
task easier by describing the bird as grey.

Female harriers have brown eyes...they lighten with age, but lighten
as in lighter brown, not YELLOW.

As for the Coop guess, I've never seen a Coop that comes
anywhere near that description, and I've trapped and banded
hundreds. It would have to be an immy, I assume, as there
was no mention of barring on the chest, or grey colored
plumage. While SY and older birds are well in their molt, I've
never seen a second-year bird with a whitish head matching the
description. And they should be showing pretty much an adult
chest by now, which is pretty obvious. And most SY Coops do
show an orangish eye, though a few have yet to gain any reddish
pigment and still have a yellow eye. I've certainly never
seen one showing significant white on the tail!

I think we've got a case of an inexperienced person concentrating
on the wrong parts of the bird, and not noting the points that
would allow us to make a definite ID.

But, reality is that most "wierd" looking (i.e. non-textbook) raptors
in this part of the world will be RTs. There is so much variation.
And immy RTs do have longer tails than adults, and lack that stumpy
look. Since immy RTs generally have primaries that only reach
partially down the tail, that might have given the illusion of a "long
tail".

Without a better description, a betting man like myself will
have to stick with the odds.

My favorite is when absolute beginners call up Audubon. If I'm
hanging out I often get fed ID questions, and many times callers
have asked for help IDing a raptor, proudly announcing "the legs
were yellow!". "Notice anything else". "Oh, no, but I'm really
certain the legs were yellow!".


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>