Jerry Friedman

I didn't have an impression of a raptor at all, but maybe I was wrong.

This thing flew, with fast wingbeats but not very fast flight, over a wooded yard in a small town in northeastern Ohio, May 19. Might it be one of the cuckoos? Or some other genus or family? I assume it can't be identified to species.

Also, in the last picture you can see that the tail is "graduated"--the outer tail feathers (on the bottom when the tail is folded) are shorter than the inner ones.

I was wondering about Sharp-shinned. I don't see any sign of tail graduation.

Looks like a hefty buteo build, with the wings reaching more than halfway down the tail, unlike an accipiter. Immature Red-shouldered, based on the long tail for a buteo? The tail doesn't look right to me, but I don't have experience with Red-shouldered (or Broad-winged) tail variations.

The straight leading edge of the wings, with the head projecting in front, is a strong indication for Coop. Also the body seems to be widest in the middle.

Me too, given the flared tail and the very short outermost primary, which gives the impression of a notch on the leading edge of the wing. (The second-outermost primary looks like the outermost one.)

I can't help with this scaup, but isn't the peak supposed to be farther back on a Lesser?

That's a Cooper's Hawk. The bill is too big for a Sharpie and smoothly continues the curve of the top of the head, and the eyebrow ridge is too strong for a Sharpie. An immature Northern Goshawk would have much more heavily marked underparts, with spots on the entire belly, legs, and undertail coverts. It would also look distinctly small-headed--like a Sharp-shin, oddly enough. The underpart markings are unusual, I believe--just thin streaks without the dark ovals around them.

I classify Harris's Sparrows as "awesome".

Maybe we need a sad thread on our birds-hit-with-car lists. (American Kestrel.)

And that being so, the long wings were a clue for swallow. I like that last shot!

Around here some people call these birds "Dammond's Flycatchers".

I don't see any sign of Audubon's in either picture. The throat is all white and wraps around the auriculars, there's a white eyebrow, and the white on the wings is limited to narrow bars.

I don't know about you, but Broad-wings are smaller than I thought. According to allaboutbirds, the length of the Broad-winged Hawk is 13.4 to 17.3 inches, and the length of the Sharp-shinned Hawk is 9.4 to 13.4 inches. (That 9.4 inches is 34 cm, which is why it shows up in both.) So a big female Sharpie could be just slightly smaller than a small male Broad-wing.