maryannewest@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> can you tell me what kind of bird this is @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> https://post.craigslist.org/manage/872761270/3hacf
>
>
> thanks
Okay. After ****ing over a lot of photos, I think I've found your bird.
It is a Red-tailed Hawk, either a Fuertes morph or a Western morph that
is lacking a belly band.
Looking at the bill and overall shape, it is definitely a hawk of some
kind. The dark brown head with a dark throat likely eliminates
Red-shouldered, which should be a bit more slender anyway.
It is the perfect shape for a Red-tailed. With that much light in face
of the hawk, were it a juvenile, you would clearly be able to see the
light colored eyes. The dark-brown eyes point to an adult.
The coloration of the head fits a Western Red-tail, but the lack of a
belly band does not. However, Red-tailed hawks have an incredible amount
of color variations even among birds of the same morph. But, there is
also a particular morph found in the Great Plains and Southwest called a
Fuertes where adults lack the belly band and can have a completely dark
head. Eastern Red-tailed's can have the brown head and throat, but
almost always have a belly band that sort of looks like a vest. A
migrating Fuertes could easily fit the bill.
For a good example of the Fuertes that matches your bird fairly well,
look at "A Photographic Guide to North American Raptors" by Wheeler &
Clark, page 85, plate RT05.
If not for the lack of a belly band, I'd have gone "all in" on a
Red-tailed from the beginning. There is also the possibility that
overexposure combined with low image quality (at the pixel level) from
compression is masking a faint or poorly contrasted belly band.
Eric Miller
www.dyesscreek.com
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