Andy Frank

Friday, October 28, 2016

Sauvie Island Red-tailed Hawk




This bird was initially thought to be a dark-morph immature Ferruginous Hawk.  It wound up being a 2nd year Harlan's Hawk.  Per Carole Hallett's post on OBOL: "The presence of wing molt and the pattern of the barring on the old vs new

secondaries visible in some of the images of the bird on flight peg this as

a bird in its second calendar year. The dark terminal band on the retained

kid feathers is much narrower than on the fresh adult feathers.

Pale eye not always a good indicator, especially  on dark birds. Also note

brown banded tail. This has been bugging me. If this were a red-tailed hawk

that tail would be red by now. Contacted Bill Clark (Clark and Wheeler) and

he confirmed dark Harlan's Hawk."

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