Bird ID request

[jack]

This bird was right outside on my deck, but I wasn't able to get a good shot as the screen and window were both down. Lacking the black head eliminates the Cooper. Is it a red tailed??

[suunto]

Originally Posted by jack

This bird was right outside on my deck, but I wasn't able to get a good shot as the screen and window were both down. Lacking the black head eliminates the Cooper. Is it a red tailed??

It might be a broad-winged hawk, Buteo platypterus - see http://35.8.12.48/images/stories/att...inged_Hawk.jpg for an example.

[jack]

Originally Posted by suunto

It might be a broad-winged hawk, Buteo platypterus - see http://35.8.12.48/images/stories/att...inged_Hawk.jpg for an example.

I looked the Broad Wing up before I posted, but it didn't look like that. The color of this bird was primarily auburn/red/brown mix. A shade of brown on the red side. It didn't have the tail feathers of the broad wing. EDIT: I just looked broad wing up again and perhaps it could have been. This picture is similar:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...ed=0CCMQ9QEwBQ

[CitraBenzoet]

redshoulder hawk?

[Asclepias]

Jack... it looks like a red-shouldered hawk. The somewhat similar looking broad-winged is a bit "chunkier" in appearance and is usually not as rufus in color on the shoulders and back. If you saw the bird in flight (overhead), the red shoulder has a fairly long tail with several horizontal strips.

[jack]

Originally Posted by Asclepias

Jack... it looks like a red-shouldered hawk. The somewhat similar looking broad-winged is a bit "chunkier" in appearance and is usually not as rufus in color on the shoulders and back. If you saw the bird in flight (overhead), the red shoulder has a fairly long tail with several horizontal strips.

Yes, I believe you and Citra have nailed it. Thank you!!!! It's great to have the knowledge base we have here at the site!!!

One of the features of the bird that didn't come out in the pictures was the yellow lores. When I looked up red shouldered hawk, the yellow lores jumped right out at me. The rest of the bird in the pictures is identical also, including the noteworthy wealth of feathers on his legs that made them look massive. Well, that's a first for me in my backyard birding experience. I had a Cooper's hawk here for most of the winter. But this guy was bigger and more impressive size wise. He was also not as terrifying to the birds. In one of the pictures I took, the mourning doves were still lined up on the power lines about 150 yards away. Perhaps they knew he had just eaten??? I missed his flight as I was fiddling with the camera and, when I look up, he had gone.

Yes, he looked just like this:

Red-shouldered Hawks

[suunto]

I had mentioned broad-winged as a possibility mainly because of the combination of the dark head with the very pale throat patch seen in light-phase juveniles of that species. However, given the degree of individual variation within each of these two quite similar species, I for one would be very hesitant to confirm this one.

[jack]

Originally Posted by suunto

I had mentioned broad-winged as a possibility mainly because of the combination of the dark head with the very pale throat patch seen in light-phase juveniles of that species. However, given the degree of individual variation within each of these two quite similar species, I for one would be very hesitant to confirm this one.

I'll keep my eye out for him and try to get a better identifying shot. Based upon the pictures on the web I've researched, though, and the fact that I was much better able to study him in person than was my camera with my poor photography skills (which I'm working on), I would definitely gravitate toward the red shouldered. I have an email out to the local birding guru around town on his opinion. There's an Audubon center a mile from my house and birding is a big deal here as I'm next to the Plum Island National Refuge, which is a couple of miles from my house. But, he must be on vacation and without access to a computer.

I'm learning, though, that the way to really become familiar with species (and I'm sure you learned this in entomology) is to go through the exact process I'm now going through. The key for me, though, is learning to enjoy this learning process and not to become frustrated. The same goes for my trying to learn to use a new camera. I have something in me that wants to be "there" without going through the labor of first not knowing and, then, gradually learning. Strange too, in that I'm a school teacher...

[suunto]

Originally Posted by jack

I'll keep my eye out for him and try to get a better identifying shot. Based upon the pictures on the web I've researched, though, and the fact that I was much better able to study him in person than was my camera with my poor photography skills (which I'm working on), I would definitely gravitate toward the red shouldered. I have an email out to the local birding guru around town on his opinion. There's an Audubon center a mile from my house and birding is a big deal here as I'm next to the Plum Island National Refuge, which is a couple of miles from my house. But, he must be on vacation and without access to a computer.

I'm learning, though, that the way to really become familiar with species (and I'm sure you learned this in entomology) is to go through the exact process I'm now going through. The key for me, though, is learning to enjoy this learning process and not to become frustrated. The same goes for my trying to learn to use a new camera. I have something in me that wants to be "there" without going through the labor of first not knowing and, then, gradually learning. Strange too, in that I'm a school teacher...

This is how we all learn, and among the things that I have learned over the years is that I am most likely to be wrong when I am absolutely certain that I am right... - Re: the hawk i.d., I would give more weight to your observational skills than to my interpretation of your images. Please let us know what the guru says.

[jack]

Originally Posted by suunto

This is how we all learn, and among the things that I have learned over the years is that I am most likely to be wrong when I am absolutely certain that I am right... - Re: the hawk i.d., I would give more weight to your observational skills than to my interpretation of your images. Please let us know what the guru says.

Will do!