On 2011-08-22 12:59 , P. J. Alling wrote:
I tried to get the color correct, and he's not really red enough to be a Red Tailed Hawk. As for size I'd put him at about 12-15 inches in height. Not huge but he was the biggest bird in the area. In fact once he showed up he was the only bird in the area.
that is small for a red-tailed hawk ... what made me think red-tail is head pattern and the beak (maybe yellowish toward back?), plus the pale reddish collar; the red they are known for is on the back of the tail, though it can shine through in flight; i see them often that way, but without seeing that they are much harder for me to identify; and i'm used to southwest variants anyway; if you look at a bunch of photos online you'll see how variable they are; for example see here:
<http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-tailed_hawk/id> (and note the description of young birds with a brown banded tail) -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
