A dot circling high over the valley resolves faster than you'd think — if you read silhouette and flight style first and save plumage for last. Sort it to a group in five seconds, then key it to a name.
Seven shapes overhead. This is the whole game.
Broad wings, short fanned tail. Soars in lazy circles. The big soaring hawks — Red-tailed & friends.
Short round wings, long tail. Flap–flap–glide. Bird-hawks — Cooper's & Sharp-shinned.
Pointed, swept-back wings. Fast, direct, powered flight. Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine, Prairie.
Enormous plank wings. Head & bill shove far forward. Bald & Golden — dwarfs everything.
Long wings + long tail, slim. Buoyant low coursing, wings in a V, white rump.
Wings kinked into an M. Over water, hovers and plunges. White below, black wrists.
Broad wings in a strong V, tiny head. Teeters & rocks, barely flaps. Turkey Vulture.
Overhead, size is a liar — there's nothing to scale against. Trust wing shape, tail length, and the rhythm of the wingbeats before you trust how big it looks or what color it is.
Tap through to a name.
The full key — follow the arrows to a name.
Head-on, the angle of the wings sorts the soarers.
Ordered common → rare. Amber box = the clinching mark.
Falco sparverius
The default falcon on roadside wires and over open ground, year-round. Smallest and lightest of the five.
Buteo jamaicensis
The default soaring hawk — freeway light poles to foothills, year-round. Wildly variable in color; the patagial bar is the constant.
Cathartes aura
Not a true raptor, but it owns the "what's that soaring?" question Mar–Oct. Gone in winter (seasonality inferred from the frequency curve).
Astur cooperii
The backyard bird-hawk — raids feeders and edges, year-round. The larger, commoner of the two look-alike accipiters.
Circus hudsonius
Quarters low and slow over marsh and stubble; rarely soars high like the buteos. Strongest in winter.
Accipiter striatus
Winter yards and migration; smaller and scarcer than Cooper's. The size overlap between a female Sharpie and a male Cooper's is the classic trap — see below.
Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Winter bird here, tied to open water and fish — causeway, reservoirs, the Jordan. Numbers build Dec–Feb.
Buteo swainsoni
Summer only (Apr–Sep) — a grassland buteo that migrates to Argentina. The one buteo whose wings look almost falcon-pointed.
Aquila chrysaetos
Foothills, cliffs, and open country year-round. Reads Uncommon countywide, but that's lowland-checklist bias — it's a reliable upland bird where the ground rises.
Falco columbarius
Winter open country and shorelines. Bigger-headed and darker than a Kestrel, and it powers along instead of floating.
Buteo lagopus
Winter only — an Arctic breeder in the open valleys and fields. The buteo most likely to hang motionless in the wind.
Pandion haliaetus
Its own family. Near reservoirs and rivers, Apr–Oct — platform nests on poles and pilings. Not confusable once you see the M.
Falco peregrinus
Cliffs, wetlands, and downtown ledges; more likely in migration. The bulky, dark-hooded big falcon.
Falco mexicanus
Dry open country and cliffs, year-round. Paler and browner than a Peregrine, with that diagnostic dark flash in the wingpit.
Astur atricapillus
Formerly Northern Goshawk (split in 2023). A montane-forest bird — reads Scarce countywide only because almost no checklists come from the high conifer where it lives. The set's biggest findability gap.
Buteo regalis
Open desert and grassland, mostly west of the valley — reads Scarce countywide but regular in the right sagebrush habitat. Winter into spring.
Buteo platypterus
A UBRC review species here — regular in tiny numbers in Sep passage, but still worth documenting. Smallest of our buteos.
Where careful birders still trip.
Sharp-shinned vs Cooper's Hawk
The eternal one, and size won't save you (a big female Sharpie ≈ a small male Cooper's). Tell on tail tip and head: Cooper's has a rounded tail with a clean white band and a big head that pushes out front like a cross; Sharp-shinned has a squared/notched tail and a small head tucked in, with quicker, flittier beats. Cooper's is much the commoner here.
Turkey Vulture vs Golden Eagle
Both soar on a dihedral. The vulture is small-headed, teeters constantly, and shows silvery flight feathers against dark linings; the eagle is huge, steady, golden-naped, with the head projecting and only a slight rock. If it wobbles like a kite in a breeze, it's the vulture.
Red-tailed vs Swainson's Hawk
The two summer buteos, told by the underwing: Red-tailed has pale flight feathers with a dark patagial bar on the leading edge; Swainson's flips it — dark flight feathers, pale linings, plus a dark bib and slightly raised, pointier wings. Swainson's clears out by October; a soaring buteo in December is not one.
Peregrine vs Prairie Falcon
Both big falcons. Peregrine is slaty and dark-hooded with a heavy helmet; Prairie is sandy-brown with dark "armpits" — a black axillary patch that flashes on the pale underwing. Habitat leans Prairie toward dry open country, Peregrine toward water and cliffs.
Rough-legged vs Ferruginous Hawk
Two big winter buteos of open country. Rough-legged shows a dark belly and dark wrist commas and hovers; Ferruginous is paler and cleaner below with rusty leggings forming a dark V, and it's the larger, longer-winged of the pair.
A high, distant falcon vs an accipiter
Both can look long-tailed at range. Read the wing shape and rhythm: falcons have stiff pointed wings and steady, continuous beats; accipiters have blunter wings and a flap-flap-flap-glide stutter. The falcon slices; the accipiter rows and coasts.
When Merlin offers one of these, slow down.
On the county list, but the UBRC still requests documentation. A photo or clear notes, not a tick.
Per the 2020 UBRC checklist these hadn't been recorded here. If the app insists, photograph it and report to records@utahbirds.org — don't just log the tick.