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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
