[Tweeters] Unknown Hawk

[Kevin Lucas]

>From Birds of the World online, in Red-shouldered Hawk account:

"Bare Skin On Head And Neck
At hatching, cere pale. Immature greenish yellow. Adult bright yellow (Palmer
1988h
<https://birdsoftheworld-org.access-proxy.sno-isle.org/bow/species/reshaw/cur/references#REF65069>
)."

I found no other reference to cere color in the account there.
All of the images there, including images of downy Red-shouldered Hawk
chicks in the nest, show yellow or light yellow ceres.

There are illustrations in Peter Pyle's Identification Guide to North
American Birds Part II for tail feathers of Red-tailed Hawks (p. 446,
Figure 333) and for Red-shouldered Hawks (p. 428, Figure 319). The tail
feathers of the question bird fairly well match those of "typical juvenile
Red-tailed Hawk". Illustrations for Red-shouldered Hawk tail feathers show
light bands narrower than dark bands, and a distinctly wider dark
subterminal band.

I don't claim these things rule out this being a Red-shouldered Hawk, but
that's how it seems to me based on how I see the posted photograph and what
I've read and viewed today in BotW, Pyle, Wheeler, Clark, Sibley, Peterson,
Stokes, Brinkley, Dunn, Kauffman, and Ligouri. None of those Red-shouldered
accounts mentions the lack of a yellow cere, some mention it as always
present, and all images and illustrations show and depict it.

When my wife and I found a Red-shouldered Hawk here in Yakima County on
December 30, 2012, the first thing I'd noticed about the bird's plumage,
and mentioned aloud to my wife, was the distinct tail pattern -- not quite
right for a Red-tailed Hawk. It matches the images and description in Pyle.
It also shows a yellow cere (seemingly necessary, but not sufficient). When
a local expert went to see the bird, he told those with him that I'd
misidentified the Red-shouldered Hawk, and said it was actually a
Broad-winged Hawk. Once he heard the call, he realized my identification
was correct.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58148027@N07/8397220142/in/datetaken/

At the time of my find, Bill Clark, the raptor expert and author, responded
to my email, promptly confirming it as a Red-shouldered Hawk,
congratulating me, and noting it as the California elegans subspecies.
Perhaps a query to Bill Clark

http://www.globalraptors.org/grin/ResearcherResults.asp?lresID=155

or a similar expert would elicit helpful identification thoughts based on
the posted photo of the raptor Burt Cunningham and his wife saw at Fir
Island:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bc_pics/51931777507/

I've not delved into whether its bare parts and plumage could match that of
Broad-winged Hawk or any other.

Good Birding,
Kevin Lucas
Yakima, WA
https://www.aba.org/aba-code-of-birding-ethics/

*Qui tacet consentire videtur*


*I apologize for typos and such.*


On Sat, Mar 12, 2022 at 1:53 PM Jeff Gilligan <jeffgilligan10 at gmail.com>
wrote:


> I think we can eliminate the yellow sere or lack of it, as being an

> important ID factor.  For example, see this immature Red-tailed Hawk has an

> obvious yellow sere:

> https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2016/six-quick-questions-help-you-identify-red-tailed

>

> A qyuick answer, without a leading question, from a very good Santa

> Barbara birder was that it is an immature Red-shouldered.  He wasn’t

> committed to that as positive though.  He has Red-sholudered Hawks that

> nest behind hs house.

>

> Jeff Gilligan

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> On Mar 12, 2022, at 9:24 AM, J. Acker <Owler at sounddsl.com> wrote:

>

> I’m not so sure about imm Red-Shouldered.  This bird appears to be a

> buteo, and a chunky one.  Red shoulders are more slender / less bulky

> looking.  Also the number and width of the tail bars is not matching up

> with the photos I have viewed online of red-shouldered. Additionally,  the

> cere should be yellowish in a red-shouldered and this photo has an all dark

> bill and cere.

> But I am confused as to what this bird is also.

>

> J. Acker

> Owler at sounddsl.com

> Bainbridge Island, WA

> Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for

> Windows

>  *From: *BURT CUNNINGHAM <burtc_8 at msn.com>

>

>

> _______________________________________________

> Tweeters mailing list

> Tweeters at u.washington.edu

> http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20220312/ce09f15c/attachment.html>