Cooper’s Hawk

When the bird darted across my path, I guessed it was a Merlin. However, a Merlin is smaller and prefers forest clearings to the denser brush where this bird was hunting. This was a Cooper’s Hawk, albeit an immature one. 

The infrequent local sightings of Cooper’s Hawks are usually made in late summer and early fall when hawks are migrating south for the winter. There are three pictures of this bird, below.