South Florida Raptor - Zone Tailed Hawk? (1 Viewer)

A

AGPank

Well-known member

• Jan 15, 2017

• #1

I live in Fort Lauderdale and today I saw a hawk I haven't seen before. There were hundreds of small birds on the power lines and I stepped inside to try out my new binoculars and when I came back all the birds were gone. Above my house was what I first thought was a vulture, but it looked smaller and was flying lower than when I see vultures.

When I looked with my binoculars I could immediately tell it wasn't a vulture due to the feathered head. It had a very dark color similar to a vulture. I have the Waite's Pro app, and the zone tailed hawk had the most similar looking head, but it wasn't shown to have florida in the range.

 

Nutcracker

Stop Brexit!

• Jan 15, 2017

• #2

Correct, no Zone-tailed Hawks in Florida. Perhaps check out Snail Kite? Normally resident in the Everglades, so Fort Lauderdale isn't too far for one to wander (though not its preferred habitat). Otherwise, perhaps a juvenile Black Vulture? Their heads are less obviously featherless than adults.

 

A

AGPank

Well-known member

• Jan 16, 2017

• #3

I got a real good look at the head and it was a smooth dark gray feathered head. It was holding in place over my house, maybe 100 feet. I had my 12x on the bird. I spent more time focusing on the head than the tail that would have helped. The common black hawk looked similar, my guess of the zone tailed hawk was the behavior of hunting birds and possibly following vultures to blend in and hunt.

There are hundreds of vultures in the area right now.

It looked a lot like this image.
https://www.google.com/search?q=zon...=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=gOLbAN2_Ee-WsM:

 

Jeff Hopkins

Just another...observer

• Jan 20, 2017

• #4

Another possibility is dark-morph Short-tailed Hawk.

 

A

AGPank

Well-known member

• Jan 20, 2017

• #5

I looked at the short tail, I don't recall the white / light coloring above the bill.

The Florida Audubon society has the Zone tail hawk listed.
http://fl.audubon.org/sites/g/files/amh666/f/birds_checklist.pdf

I will look around more this weekend and try for a picture. Unfortunately my digiscope setup doesn't work well with the iPhone 7.

 

A

AGPank

Well-known member

• Jan 29, 2017

• #6

Jeff hopkins said:

Another possibility is dark-morph Short-tailed Hawk.

Click to expand...

Today it was cold and rainy. I took my son for a walk and lots of birds out...mockingbirds, blue jays, grackles, and ibis. Jus as we got home I saw a hawk up on the power pole.

I rushed my son inside who was soaking wet and first looked through my binoculars. Although the hawk looked different than the bird I saw earlier that could be several factors such as today was rainy and overcast, the last time was a bright blue sky. Today the hawk was perched versus flying overhead.

Fortunately the hawk sat still long enough for me to get my scope out for a closer look.

I do believe Jeff is correct with the dark morph short tailed hawk.

 

A

AGPank

Well-known member

• Jan 29, 2017

• #7

My digiscope setup isn't great right now. I have an iPhone 6+ with a phoneskope universal adapter. It just doesn't provide the secure fit on my new Meostar scope.

 

Tero

Retired

• Jan 29, 2017

• #8

It's quite dark, but looks OK for red tailed.
Here are your hawks
http://ebird.org/ebird/GuideMe?cmd=decisionPage&getLocations=states&states=US-FL&yr=all&m=
Swainson's is possible in Florida.

 

Last edited: Jan 29, 2017

A

AGPank

Well-known member

• Jan 29, 2017

• #9

I've seen lots of red-tailed hawk, neither of the ones I saw have the tail like that. Red-tails I've seen are always lighter underneath.

Ibird has this picture.

 

Tero

Retired

• Jan 30, 2017

• #10

You'll have to go by size then. If it is a smallish hawk, then it may be what you want.(dark-morph Short-tailed Hawk.)

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2017

dacol

Well-known member

• Jan 31, 2017

• #11

Dark morph Short-tailed Hawk. Most Short-tailed Hawks here in Florida are dark morphs.