Badass.

That hawk looks a little drunk, like he's just getting his bearings before taking off. Wouldn't want to get an FUI after the holiday party.

Now THAT is cool.

Oh, are we one-upping here? I'll just have to get a snap of one of our chickadees or juncos. Those motherfuckers are BAD-ASS.

@5: Don't fuck with the juncos. I saw one on my balcony the other day kick the shit out of a cardinal about twice his size.

Those little bastards do not fuck around.

Looking through my birds book, it appears to be either a red tailed hawk or a peregrine falcon. If you saw a cardinal #6 you aren't from around these parts.

I'm glad it took care of that pesky cat that used to sit there.

#4 Are you monitoring faux news for your lies, I mean news reports? Oopsies means I lie when I want and I'm a republican at heart and I am uneducated and I'm probably on foodstamps.

#6 Just noticed that you're from Chicago. Do you really see cardinals in the winter? I have yet to see a cardinal on the wing. The raptor on your deck rail could be a peregrine or a prairie falcon. I'm not sure but I would like to know more about the raptors that you see in your area. Thanks.

Blue juncoes are indeed bad-ass birds. Will see about some pix of them over the weekend. This bird is probably a red-tail or Cooper's hawk; seems a bit too burly for a Peregrine to me. Got some of them around my apartment, but they never get close enough for this kind of shot.

Looked up Coopers Hawk and you might be right. The lighter coloring in the immature example is significant.

That's cool a raptor got so close. I rarely see birds of prey, once a month maybe driving around. The birds I'm most familiar with are the hummingbirds that hang around our feeder on the back porch. There's a mind blowing documentary out there, plays on PBS maybe, on how those sweet little buggers, though not the coveted "bad asses" for so many people, are thrillingly masterful flyers.

(should i have said 'thrillingly'? Whenever I use unnecessary adverbs, I feel like Paul Constant.)

@10 Cardinals by the backyard feeder all winter and summer long. I call them Stan and Amanda (Stan Musial being the only Cardinal I can stand to reference, and Amanda being a commonplace Polish-American name to go with Stosh).

@13 You're an exquisite dork

@15
i can roll with that criticism, will work on eliminating the dork part

I'm pretty sure that's a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. Juvenile. Cooper's is most likely but it's really hard to tell without seeing the tail, especially on a juvenile.

You know it's not a peregrine because it lacks the tell-tale cheek patch.

Whoa.

give it to me!

@7, 10: Nope, I live in Baltimore. Cardinals all up in here. Last year we had a mated pair, and we got to watch the male feed sunflower seeds to the female all day.

"Peregrines look like hieroglyphics of hawks"; I love that! Just the sort of description that is actually useful for a casual birder like me.

i had a barred owl on my deck rail once when i lived in the wilds of fall city. pretty fuckin' cool.

Birds of prey know they're cool. - Gary Larson

It has visited a few times and it is not a red tail hawk.

One thing I miss from living back east is the pair of cardinals that nested in our backyard hedge.

I do not miss the bluejays, or the one billion starlings.

And now when I get visitors from the east, I get to be so casual when they see their first bald eagle and I'm all like, "Oh yeah, those fuckers are everywhere."

Almost certainly a Red-tailed Hawk though it is hard to tell exactly from the picture. The size and body shape contrast between a Cooper's and RTH is pretty significant- that would help to know the rough size but this looks like a chunky fella (though buffed up in the cold can be misleading). Given that though, there are other clues: the white spotted scapulars, the 'bib' on the upper breast, leg hair and posture. Unfortunately the environment doesn't give much help:this fella appears to be hanging around an open field looking for rodents if a RTH but could potentially be a Cooper's hanging around a feeder looking to surprise a songbird.
But, still. 95% sure a Red-tail. They are awesome

@27 - This is informative, thank you. We've supposedly got both Cooper's and Red Tails in my neighborhood, but I think it's the former I see most often. What they do to pigeons — I've seen toddlers take more care in eating bbq.

I would be interested to know what other people feed their wild birds. I have experimented a lot and have come up with what I think is a good winter diet and also not too expensive. Take a 40lb. sack of C.O.B. (corn oats and barley) using a metal garbage can (clean) and mix in a 40 lb. bag of black oil sunflower seeds. That lasts me quite awhile, and I attract black capped chickadees, spotted towhees, and in the spring the grosbeaks, and the usual pesky Jays. I have two unusual regulars this winter, a lone flicker and a couple of varied thrush. I'm also very fortunate to have several owl that announce their presence in the early mornings. I live east of Seattle about 25 miles.