A very interesting hawk to watch in my neck of the woods is the Harrier. Their ability to hover, with the wind in their face and providing lift, is amazing to watch. The Marine Corps fighter jet, which a VTOL aircraft, is justly named for this hawk. Their flight is seemingly effortless. Another type that I enjoy watching, when they migrate through here in the late spring, is the Mississippi and Swallow-Tailed Kite(s).
I and convinced, after a lifetime in the fields and woods observing raptors, that no commonly seen hawk is as efficient in catching it's prey as the Sharp-Shinned Hawk (Blue Darter) and it's closely related family of smaller, woods dwelling hunters like the Cooper's Hawk. I have been sitting in my truck in the edge of a field watching wild quail feeding on the field edge, or border, and had a Blue darter come from behind me at top speed, right over the roof of my pickup, and nail a hapless quail in a cloud of feathers. Big hawks like Red-Tails miss their prey very often, but the smaller ones I mentioned are so maneuverable in flight that almost nothing can escape them. They also prey heavily on songbirds, IME. I often see a pitiful Towhee or Cardinal desperately trying to escape a Blue darter by flying at full speed through the tree limbs, dodging and jiving, but the BD will inevitably be within 6 ft. behind it matching every turn. The outcome is almost always not good for the songbird.
