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dead hawk in mid North Carolina, Eastern United States (1 Viewer)

jdavid13

Member
I found this dead hawk in my backyard today, August 10, 2007, in Apex, North Carolina, Eastern United States. It has a darker brown back and a white and brown belly with a rectangular black and white striped tail with a bit of reddish color near the base. It is about 13 inches long. In the last picture you can see its face, it looks like it had a yellow beak. It has holes in its back, and I could see into its hollow ribcage, but its head and its limbs are all still attached. I'm not sure what it is. I suspect it to be a broad-winged hawk or a young red-tailed hawk. Could anyone ID it for me? I think I saw it getting mobbed by blue jays and mockingbirds a few weeks before it turned up dead in my backyard. Here are the photos I took:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/pinnipedbuddy/deadhawk1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/pinnipedbuddy/deadhawk2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/pinnipedbuddy/deadhawk3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/pinnipedbuddy/deadhawk4.jpg
 
Hmmm, maybe it is a sharp-shinned hawk. Is there anything that would pin it as being one? It seems a little bit small and dark to be a prairie falcon.
 
Well...the size description you gave fits a sharpie. It could be a young hawk. The breast looks streaked and that would fit the description of a juvenile. Too bad the eyes were not preserved...the eye color would help.
 
I strongly disagree with Sharp-shinned Hawk. The taile patterning is opposite of a sharpie: the dark stripes are thicker than the light stripes, unlike a sharpie, And for another reason: the primary projection of this bird is much too long for a sharpie.
 
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ooh.....so......you dare question the great sibley!? ;) In case you haven't noticed I don't think this bird is exactly fresh....color quickly fades the longer an animal has been dead! Still don't jump all down my throat....I did say I am not very good with raptors! So back off me man! Just wondering, what do YOU think it is?

*Sorry prairiemerlin....I was talking to SP*
 
The best thing that fits in my opinion is a Red-shouldered Hawk. The upperside and underside tail pattern fits perfectly with the Light morph Juvenile. The wings fit well too. the legs are grayish, but most hawks have yellow legs and i beleive this is just because the bird is decaying.

Really sad how an amazing creature had to go. Rest in Peace, little guy, wherever you are in raptor heaven. (aka mouse hell ;) )
 
Well, Storm-Petrol really seems to know the raptors well, so I am inclined to believe him. How long does it take a red-shouldered hawk to mature? I'm pretty sure I've been seeing this hawk around all summer, mostly getting mobbed. Also, any ideas on how it died? It was just laying on its back in my backyard. I kind of expected it to be torn up.
 
do you have outdoor dogs? if you do and they are like mine it could have been shot or hit by a vehicle and the dogs drug it up. One morning we found the whole back half of a whitetail deer on our door step...not the best way to start your day...
 
No, my neighbors and I don't have any outdoor dogs. I live in a pretty suburban area where no one shoots birds, and usually I only see songbirds anyway, so I find this hawk very interesting. I think if it was hit by a car it probably would have been crushed, but this bird just has holes in it. Also, it was pretty far from a road. It's about the size of a cat, but maybe a cat got it? I find it very mysterious.
 
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