Well, now I'm reading a bit deeper and it seems the tail is the more obvious point, and this tail does sound thinner than expected in a gos. So maybe it is a Coop's. A bit more likely, given that Coop's are more widespread than gos. Possibly you can only put this down as Accipiter spp. rather than a definite ID, but now I'm leaning more toward Coop's as the most likely ID.
They're tough calls, the immie accipiters; a female sharpie is about the size of a male Coop's, and a female Coop's can be the size of a male gos. It's mostly habitat and smaller details of appearence that can be used to tell them apart, and since Coop's and sharpies are fairly cosmopolitan and can be found in suburban backyards, that's the usual question of accipiter ID. When it comes to Coop's and gos, it gets tougher; gos prefer higher elevation/northerly coniferous, so you'd find them higher up than a Coop's, but a Coop's is likelier in mixed forest, and range overlap is something else to keep in mind.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-08-29 12:03 am (UTC)They're tough calls, the immie accipiters; a female sharpie is about the size of a male Coop's, and a female Coop's can be the size of a male gos. It's mostly habitat and smaller details of appearence that can be used to tell them apart, and since Coop's and sharpies are fairly cosmopolitan and can be found in suburban backyards, that's the usual question of accipiter ID. When it comes to Coop's and gos, it gets tougher; gos prefer higher elevation/northerly coniferous, so you'd find them higher up than a Coop's, but a Coop's is likelier in mixed forest, and range overlap is something else to keep in mind.