fyi, just googled this "native birds of prey in minnesota" then saw the pic right there. put more faith into wiki, they have a whole page about birds in your state.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_of_Minnesota

To me, this looks like a white-tailed / broad-wing / red-tailed - hawk.

Some wt hawks for comparison:

http://www.riorvpark.com/Images/Bird%20Photos/RGV%20Birds/White_tailed_Hawk750lite.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3637/3282806423_f7a3106d5c.jpg

But I am no expert and the color in the photos posted kinda throw me off (aren't clear on what shade he is). They are all very similar.

This post was edited by Solarves on Sep 12 2010 09:45am

It is NOT a red-tail

I had to shoot this through my front window, it was kind of tough and they didn't turn out as well as I wanted them too. :X

It's a broad-winged hawk.

Being a birder of over 15 years I can tell you that it is none of the species mentioned above. This is either a Sharp-shinned hawk or a Cooper's Hawk, both species are almost identical and the predominant feature in telling them apart is the size of the bird. A Sharp-shinned Hawk is 11" while the Cooper's Hawk is 16.5" and judging from the size of the leaves it appears be a a Sharp-shinned. The measurement is taken from the points of the beak to the tip of the tail. These birds are often seen near feeders as they often prey on small birds for food.

This post was edited by zex on Sep 13 2010 11:34am

There is a feeder there too. heh