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Red-tailed Hawk (Harlan's)
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis harlani) Melanistic bird with signs of some leucism. Caesar of birdforum believes this to be Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk, subspecies harlani. I appreciate his expertise and have added this subspecies name.
Habitat
Converted Blackland Prairie into crop land and pasture land with hedgerows around fences at 31 m (102 ft) elevation.
Location
Marlin, Falls County, Texas, USA.
Date taken
February 2019
Scientific name
Buteo jamaicensis
Equipment used
Canon
Staff member
Opus Editor
Supporter
A great fly by Stan and it seems like we are seeing so much leucism in our bird life lately.
 
Great picture Stan!


I think this bird it is a Harlan's Hawk. B. j. harlani. They winter over in Eastern Texas this time of year and many of them have gray/rufous mottled tails like this one has.

Wheeler's "Raptors of Western North America" shows a very similar bird at plate #393. It is a dark intermediate morph like yours with"medium dark/gray type" mottled tail like the one on your bird.

Bob
 
Such a wonderfully detailed flight shot of this interesting hawk, Stanley.
 
Two wonderful colourful and Well detailed bird captures. And a brilliant butterfly image Stanley well done.
 
Staff member
Opus Editor
Supporter
What a fine flight picture this is Stanley.

If you could confirm Bob's thoughts on the subspecies of this guy, I'll upload your picture to The Opus, as we do not have an image of that one in the article.

Many thanks for showing it to us my friend.
 

Media information

Category
North America
Added by
Stanley Jones
Date added
View count
72
Comment count
15

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