This morning I spotted a dark morph Broad-winged Hawk that was engaged in hunting prey. I quickly learned how to stay back far enough to not flush it so I could observe it's behavior and take more photos--in fact I was able to observe it and follow it as it worked around a forested area about a quarter mile and for just over a half hour. What fun! I watched it engage in perch and pounce hunt on one occasion (it might have scored but I didn't want to get too close and risk it dropping it's prey). I was impressed by how small this hawk really is.
I did get some good photos and it has one of the two juvenile type tails as described by Brian Wheeler in <i>Hawks of Western North America</i>: this one has the 'narrow banded type' tail with 4 fairly narrow dark bands plus a wider dark subterminal band (noted by Wheeler to be the same on dark morph as on light morph birds). Certainly the odds are strongly against having 2 dark morph Broad-winged Hawks in Canon City just 2 days apart--according to Cornell's All About Birds webpage, "It is found primarily in the northwestern part of the range, and accounts for less than 0.1% of migrants observed." All my field guides and online resources said a dark morph of this species is a rare or very form so I expected this to be the same bird. However, it looks to me like the tails on today's bird and Friday's bird are different. The bird I photographed on Friday appears to have a tail consistent with an adult Broad-winged Hawk per Wheeler. I have uploaded photos and info on my Birds and Nature blog<http://birdsandnature.blogspot.com/>. As always I welcome *civil* feedback (bashing is not appropriate). SeEtta Moss Canon City Personal blog @ http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com Blogging for Birds an Blooms Magazine @ http://BirdsAndBloomsBlog.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
