Hi, Tweets,

Years ago I picked up an excellent book titled "Hawks in Flight" by Pete
Dunne, David Sibley and Clay Sutton. The ISBN is 0-395-42388-0, published by
Houghton Miflin Co. It's dubbed a book of "holistic" identification of
raptors. Rather than looking JUST at the feathers (always an iffy thing with
raptors) it considers the whole bird...build, habitat, way of flying, "jizz",
(meaning, in my way of thinking at least, it's body language and attitude),
etc. I quote from it:

"Distinguishing one accipiter from another is NOT easy. It is, in fact, one
of the most difficult identification problems facing hawk watchers. Even
veteran observers do not always agree. Arguments about identification of
accipiters may well account for more broken friendships and more failed
marriages between hawk watchers than all other causes combined."

Well, I don't know if I'd go that far, but as you can see, having difficulties
with hawk ID is not new. This book is great. I think it was recently
reprinted..check around.
Good birding!
Michelle