No old world equivalent? How about the eurasian sparrowhawk? It also has short wings and does bloodcurling acrobatics in dense vegetation to pursue prey. Sounds like the same modus operandi.
Looks like you were quite a prodigy at thirteen...
Our equivalent to the sparrowhawk is the sharp-shin, which is a little smaller and also a specialized bird killer.
Coops are midway in size between a shin and a goshawk. Like a gos, they are generalist accipiters and can take both birds and mammals. A big female Coop can take a full grown cottontail rabbit, which no shin or spar can. Out west they are death on quail. They aren't quite as explosively fast out of the gate or as acrobatic as shins or spars but still have lightning reflexes and can plunge into dense cover without leaving so much as a vibrating twig in their wake, and have more endurance, if not as much as a gos.
There are many members of tribe sparrowhawk besides the Eurasian, but they too are small, specialized bird killers for the most part, though shikras and a few others will also take small mammals, like voles. A few oddball accips like the black-mantled of New Guinea are Coop size, but in most all of the old world, no equivalent to the Coop exists, and none in Europe.
This is an African black sparrowhawk. It's actually goshawk size, but is built like a sparrowhawk (note the very long legs. thin tarsi and long toes, much less stout than a gos's). They are extremely efficient hunters and very fast on the wing. Mostly they take birds. Cool lookin' accip. Instead of the blood red eyes of an adult North American goshawk, Coop or shin, theirs are a reddish mahogany color. I had plans to do a carving of one but got sick before I could.
Thanks for the props, everybody.
