Years ago, my best friend, Renee and I were “birding” in Cape May. To me there isn’t a more enjoyable pastime than sitting on the hawk watch platform with eyes to the sky.

We are “pretty good” birders. We are not experts, and I know we have both identified raptors incorrectly. It takes practice.

Of course, learning silhouettes is one of the easiest ways to be able to identify raptors with some success. But when it comes to identifying Cooper’s hawks and Sharp-shinned hawks, I am OK with not having a definitive answer.

I pat myself on the back just knowing that I identified an accipiter!

These two species look almost alike and when they are moving it is so hard to get a good enough look to be sure what I saw. Accipiter? These birds along with Goshawks are accipiters which means they are distinguished by short, broad wings, long tail, and long legs, adapted for fast flight in wooded country.

For better examples, these videos are amazing and I never get tired of watching them:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CFckjfP-1E

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-guV6tMw-kU

Both species are fun to watch, and they are incredible hunters. There are three birds classified as accipiters: Northern Goshawks, Cooper’s hawks, and the Sharp-shinned hawks.

These birds are adapted for living in forests. Their short wings and long tails help them maneuver through trees in pursuit of songbirds.

The Cooper’s hawks and Sharp-shinned hawks have brown backs and brown stripes on their chests throughout their first year of life. Adults have blue-gray backs and orange barring on their chests. Sometimes when I am out with other “birders” I learn helpful advice and one of the helpful tips was — stripes are vertical; barring is horizontal.

One of the first things to figure out when identifying these birds is size.

On average, Cooper’s are about six inches bigger than Sharpies. Cooper’s are around the size of a crow, and Sharpies are around the size of a Blue Jay. Size does matter when it comes to identifying these birds because it varies between the sexes.

Female raptors and owls are up to a third larger than the males. Since a large female Sharpie is close to the size of a small male Cooper’s, it can become a guessing game and because I am so confident in my birding skills, I call it like I see it!

There are a few things I take into consideration when I try to ID these birds.

The Coopers’ heads appear too big for their bodies. Their heads just seem chunky to me. The Sharp-shins have small, rounded heads that are nicely proportioned to their bodies.

The ID tips that I use are based on what I have experienced. Coopers have the look of a predator. Their piercing gaze seems to cut through all the distractions and are laser-focused on prey with pinpoint accuracy. Sharpies, on the other hand, look like they are confused, startled, and distracted by everything they see and cannot focus on one specific thing.

Both species appear front heavy, with long tails and wide wings, so they resemble a horizontal “T.”

Sharp-shinned hawks fly with their small heads barely reaching beyond the wings. Coopers are more proportional, with their larger heads sticking out in front of their wings.

During my first experience up at Hawk Mountain one of the spotters was giving a quick ID lesson and he said that Sharpies look like lower case “ts” while the Cooper’s look like upper case “Ts.” That tip has “stuck” with me all these years later.

The last two tips are about the tips ... of the tails.

The tips of the Coopers tails are rounded, while the Sharpies are flat. This works well with soaring birds, or if I get lucky enough to find a perching bird. But getting a good look at either of these fast fliers is tough.

The other tip I had gotten that day at Hawk Mountain was a handy way to remember the first tip.

The “C” in the word Coopers is rounded and so are the tails of these birds while Sharpies have sharp edges almost as if someone took a sharp pair of scissors and snipped off the ends of the tails.

It takes practice and patience to get good at “birding.” The first step is recognizing silhouettes of birds in flight, and you will be one step closer to amazing your friends and family with your birding skills. For stationary birds, the best camera is the camera you have with you at the time and today’s cellphones take extraordinary photos that you can use as a guide when you can look at field guides.

Be confident in your identification skills and most people will believe you saw what you saw!

Jeannie Carl is a naturalist at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center in Summit Hill. The center rehabilitates injured animals and educates the public on a variety of wildlife found in the area. For information on the Carbon County Environmental Center, visit www.carboneec.org.