>Can anyone out there in Tweeter land give a quick guide on how to
>differentiate a Cooper's from a Sharp Shin (without analyzing their
>shins!)

I was once on a field trip with Bud Anderson (probably one of the better
raptor experts around these parts), and we had several scopes on a perching
accipiter for about 20 minutes without making a firm ID... The moral is:
Anyone who says you can always tell the difference is either better than
Bud, or is fooling themselves.

This sometimes works:

On a perching bird, the Sharpie has 'match-stick' thickness legs, the
Cooper's has 'pencil' thickness legs.

There are subtle differences in flight, such as roundness of tail tip, and
head extension past the wings. Other Tweets are more qualified than I to
summarize them. I would just be plagiarizing from two very good sources:
Ken Kaufman's book "Advanced Birding" (in the Peterson Series) has a nice
treatment of the Accipiter 'problem". Also, there's a book by Sibley and
Dunne (I think) called something like "Hawks in Flight", which has a nice
discussion.

Rick Romea "We're gonna need a bigger boat"
Seattle, WA - Jaws
rromea at stioptronics.com
206-523-5831 (Home)
425-827-0460 X 316 (Work)