Southeastern Arizona - Jan 19-21, 2013 - Sparrows & Hawks (1 Viewer)

[Merg]

Hi all...long time no see...

I have decent thoughts for two of these, but am not 100% sure. The others I'm less than 50% sure...

Hawk #1:
Spotty streaks, short hooked beak, light eye, slightly paler feathers under the eye, my guess is (edited to add: immature) Red-Shouldered - but they are rare in this location. (Kansas Settlement Road outside of Willcox, AZ) What else could this be?

Hawk #2:
clean white front except for some minor spotting on the flanks, legs were mostly white. Options are: Krider's or Ferruginous. Beak doesn't seem the right size/shape for Ferruginous, nor do the sparse markings on the front. Location doesn't seem right for Krider's. Unfortunately, I didn't get a look at the back side of the hawk (tail color would have given this one away).

Hawk #3:
Fuertes Red Tail?

Sparrow #1:
No good idea. Every time I go through Sibley's and Peterson's books I'm convinced it's something different...

Sparrow #2:
Female Lark Bunting?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. If any of you have a chance to go to Arizona to go birding (even in January) it's totally worth it!

 

[Sherpa]

Sparrow 2. Bill is wrong shape for Lark Bunting. My first thoughts were Vesper Sparrow.

 

[Sherpa]

Sparrow 1 is in a tricky pose. Possibly Lincoln's Sparrow.

 

[Kratter]

#1 not sure, but not a Red-shouldered
#2 Krider's? I think I see bare tarsi which rules out Ferruginous, though th eplumage looks good
#3 Fuerte's Red-tail seems good
#4 Song Sparrow
#5 Savannah Sparrow
Andy

 

[The Falcon]

#1 is a Red-tailed Hawk
#2 is a Ferruginous Hawk
#3 Red-tailed Hawk

Agree with Andy on the rest.

 

[Merg]

In the hopes of trying to get better at ID'ing...

For the first hawk, what are you guys looking at for exclusion of imm. red-shouldered, or inclusion of red-tailed?
And for the 5th sparrow, why Savannah? There was no noticeable yellow eye stripe, and this bird has the eye ring.

 

[ceasar]

I think #1 is a Juv. Red-shouldered Hawk. You can see some pale barrings on the right wing secondaries.

I can't see a long gape on #2 either. It looks similar to the bird in #3 which I agree is a "Fuertes" RTH.

Bob

 

[DarkFireFalcon]

Lets start on the easy ones:
Number 4: Song Sparrow. The streaking on the breast, with bold central spot, face pattern and gray neck are good for this species.
Number 5: Savannah Sparrow. The eye ring is a bit too thin for Vesper, and the dark mustachial stripe is wrong for Vesper as well.

Now the hawks:

Number 1: a tough one. I think the streaking is a little too dark/bold for even a western juvie Red-shouldered Hawk. I'd consider dark juvie Red-tail or Swainson's, though I don't have my books with me right now.

Number 2: Looks good for Ferruginous Hawk to me. The hint of barring on the flanks matches this species, as does the apparently feathered legs and the large, mean looking face.

Number 3. Looks good for Fuertes Red Tail to me.

 

[RJP]

The long gape on Hawk #2 seems pretty obvious to me - Ferruginous. I also agree on Fuertes RTHA for #3. #1 is very interesting and I would want to consult all my hawk books (which I don't have here at work) before rendering an opinion.

 

[TLeukering]

Some interesting birds, but most are straightforward.

#1 - Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk -- it has a yellow eye; it might be a Harlan's, but I believe that the view does not allow separation from juv rufous Western

#2 - Juvenile Ferruginous, as noted by others for reasons noted by others, but particularly the obvious dark eyeline

#3 -- Red-tailed Hawk, almost certainly Fuertes' as noted by nearly unmarked underparts

#4 -- Song Sparrow -- only Song and Savannah among the streak-breasted, non-eye-ringed sparrows has such a large, obvious, and flaring lateral throat stripe

#5 -- Ah, #5, what an interesting bird. First off, the bright pink legs (among other features) rule out Lark Bunting. My first-glance ID using just the thumbnail was Vesper Sparrow, but upon seeing the larger image, my brain slithered to a halt. There are aspects of the bird that certainly suggest Vesper, including the less-pointed bill, but the long, strong, and well-defined superciliary rules that species out, as does the apparent lack of rufous lesser secondary coverts. However, I find making a strong case for Savannah eludes me. The strong rufous fringing to the greater secondary coverts, particularly how that contrast in color with the grayish upperparts, leaves me shaking my head. While I've seen a large variety of Savannah Sparrows of quite a number of subspecies in a large number of places in the species' range, I don't know that I've seen such a combination of characters before. The bill looks far too substantial to be any of the small-billed, northern, highly migratory races. Savannah Sparrows also tend to show little or no primary projection. While this bird's primary projection is in no way long, it is longer than shown by most Savannah Sparrows. The unfortunate out-of-focus grass-or-whatever stem that obscures the pattern of the tertials makes determining whether the bird has wide rufousy fringes on those feathers (typical of Savannah) impossible to assess. Perhaps I haven't studied the local breeding race of Savannah Sparrow, and this beast is entirely typical of that form. However, I would think that such a subspecies would have no primary projection, as it doesn't go very far. So, while Savannah Sparrow seems the most likely ID, I cannot make myself pull the trigger, as too many features of the bird are outside my understanding of the great variability presented by the species. Personally, short of additional pictures, I'd leave it unidentified.

 

[RJP]

#1 - Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk -- it has a yellow eye; it might be a Harlan's, but I believe that the view does not allow separation from juv rufous Western

Now that I've had time to examine the library - I agree with this and lean towards juv rufous-morph western Red-tailed. With this view, you are pretty much left only with how dark the bird is to make the call, which is a shaky criteria. Wheeler & Clark's photographic guide has a pic on page 99, RT43, which is a juv rufous-morph that looks very much like #1, but is perhaps just slightly lighter.

 

[ceasar]

Changed my mind on#2 after a harder look at it. It's a Ferruginous Hawk. That should have been obvious on my first look.

I'm still not clear on #1. It's iris is too light for a Red-shouldered Hawk and it would be an accidental, far out of range. As for RTH there doesn't seem to be a real defined belly band on it which should be visible with it's markings. Wheeler's range map for Harlan's Hawks in his Western Edition shows them in a small area in this location and, of course, Dark Morph "Western" RTH's are common throughout Arizona.

I even gave some consideration that it might be a juv. Dark Morph Rough-legged Hawk as Wheeler's maps show that they winter over here too. Juvs have a pale brown iris. Plate 491 of his Western Edition shows one perched on a telephone pole like this one is but the colors on the chest and abdomen are more dense.

I thought that the one in picture #1 herein had talons and a beak that looked too small to be a RTH but I could find no comparable pictures for that so I rejected it.

Best bet, as far as I can see is a juvenile Dark-Morph Western RTH.


Bob

 

[DarkFireFalcon]

Juvenile dark and rufous (or intermediate) Red-tailed Hawks often don't show any belly band. That ID feature is mainly useful on light morph birds.