Reading through some of the other comments it seems you are open to several options. I love JC and lived there for 6 years, recently moved but still check in here because I love the city. If you want to be in JC then I definitely recommend Hamilton Park or Paulus Hook. You'll be hardpressed to find personal outdoor space though. I lived in the city with a dog and it was fine, city is very dog friendly.

I see you are from a shore town, if you like the beach I would echo some other folks comments about Monmouth county. I recently bought a house in Red Bank, NJ and would highly recommend. It's more urban than what you are probably used to but not Jersey City Urban. It's a 10-15 minute drive to the beach and there is an awesome live music scene and walkable downtown. Every bar has live music Weds-Sun night all year long. Several other shore towns within 15-30 minutes have thier own bars, breweries, and downtown areas. If you like fishing the Jersey Shore has some of the best in the country. The area gets very lively during the summer. It's a 45 minute drive to Jersey City or you can take the train to Newark and catch the PATH. You can get a car and won't have to pay extra for parking as well. All in all it's really about your priorities. Red Bank seems to have alot of Ex Pats as I met several English folks at a local pub during the USA/England world cup match.

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Pelican

I always go to Jersey City Auto Body at 21 Marcy.

Yeah a whopping 20 days per year.

It looks much bigger than a Cooper's hawk.

It also has a white chest and a red tail. Cooper's hawks don't have either of those features generally.

Really depends where you’re going - I’m generally headed to upstate New York and gps sends us through the tunnel. Can go up to the bridge and then try to get on 87 but really limited options in general. Getting to the city via PATH lately has been ok but incredibly crowded and if you’re buying anything getting back with packages is a nightmare. We have legit fedexed things from shops in the city because of it.

I know! I'm always relieved to see the red tail because that gives me less work, haha. But the belly band is also present in juveniles, which don't have their namesake red tails yet, which is why I like to point out that detail.

Magic, why hasn't he tried magic yet to solve the traffic problems?

I wonder at people who think that a mayor of a small city next to NYC can do fuckall to fix this sort of thing. Oh sure, Fulop has made it miserable for people who drive. As if adding lanes or roads has fixed a single traffic problem in any city ever.

The tail on this one is a dead giveaway. Not all of them are kind enough to have such a clearly red tail feather popping out to identify them 😂

My comment was meant to be more high-level, it stands to reason that there would be mounds of political red tape. New York also cannot just deploy congestion pricing at will, either. It had to be signed into law by state legislature as well as the New York State governor, and still requires approval on a federal level from the FHWA.

We had a similar bird land on our balcony and someone told me it was a juvenile female American kestrel.

(We are in Paulus Hook)

Yea, and OP already responded that this bird was much larger than a crow. Cooper's hawks aren't that much bigger than crows, so, again, everything is pointing at red-tailed.

That eliminates falcon then. Fully grown adult peregrines are close in size to adult crows.

If the coloration on this bird was brown (can be hard to tell in a picture), then I'm pretty confident it's a red-tailed hawk.

Yes, much bigger

It’s a juvenile red-tailed hawk.

Government drone

It’s worth checking Scram Bakery on Erie Street on the weekends, it’s a rotating menu and selection but there is usually a cake donut and it is almost always amazing.

Into the Void at Brunswick and 2nd also tends to make small batch sweets on the weekends as well though they’re not available until later in the morning. Their Halloween donuts were heavenly.

It’s not a Cooper’s hawk. Cooper’s hawks are much smaller and leaner. This is a juvenile red-tailed hawk.

It’s a juvenile red-tailed hawk. Download Merlin, it’s a great way to ID birds.

This is 100% a Red-tailed Hawk. Notice the band on their belly, that's a dead giveaway. Also, not all do, but this one has a red tail. Look at the tail feathers, you can see that they are a reddish color in contrast to the dark brown on the rest of its body.

Next time, I suggest posting in r/whatsthisbird, you might have more consistent answers :) Very neat find!

That birds name is actually Hudson Hawk and it’s famous, ok. Look it up. Played by Bruce Willy

I will speak in favor of the added stop signs. When I first moved downtown I saw 4 cars get t-boned in the intersection outside my apartment within 3 months. Since they put in the extra stop signs, I haven’t seen a single accident.

Brown cheeks, white throat, brown/red tail. It's clearly a red-tailed hawk.

Peregrines have white cheeks with malar stripes, stripes from neck to tail on their underside, and a dark tail.

OP, was this bird bigger than a crow? If so, then it was definitely a red-tailed hawk.

I agree, I think its a Coopers hawk.