Ferruginous or Red-tailed Hawk, Manitoba, Canada (1 Viewer)

I spotted this Buteo Hawk on June 2, 2019 in Manitoba, Canada, roughly the south-eastern part.

At first I thought it is some unusual morph of a Red-tailed Hawk, but then I got an idea about Ferruginous Hawk. Ferruginous Hawks are nesting in the far south-western angle of the province, so where I am they are rare but not at all impossible.

What I think is in favour of a Ferruginous (presumably dark morph):
- light tail
- deep brown head and throat without any breast band
- something like a white crescent where the dark colour meets the light on the wing underside
- cannot say if there is a long gape, but the "facial expression" makes me think it is possible

Would appreciate any thoughts. Thank you.

Looks good for Ferruginous to me. Note also the long tapered wings

To me, this bird looks more like a Red-tailed Hawk, maybe a "Harlan's"-type. I'm not seeing the large gape line, for one thing.

I will try to take a closer look in several books today.

It looks like a Ferruginous Hawk. In the photos posted, where I can see them well, it has white remiges with small black tips which is a Ferruginous Hawk trait.

As an aside to the Original Poster here in: Wheeler in his "Raptors of Western North America" shows a picture of a Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk in flight at Plate 445. He has a note in it that the Dark Morph is a "Rare morph constituting 1% of population."

Bob

birdmeister said:

To me, this bird looks more like a Red-tailed Hawk, maybe a "Harlan's"-type. I'm not seeing the large gape line, for one thing.

I will try to take a closer look in several books today.

Click to expand...

Same here

birdmeister said:

To me, this bird looks more like a Red-tailed Hawk, maybe a "Harlan's"-type. I'm not seeing the large gape line, for one thing.

I will try to take a closer look in several books today.

Click to expand...

Harlan's Hawks will be in their summer breeding range up in Alaska and the Yukon Territory at this time of year.

Also Khustochka's comments about Ferruginous Hawk "nesting in the far SW Angle" of Manitoba agrees with Wheeler's summer range map for the FH in his Western Edition.

Bob

Thanks everyone for your input.

ceasar said:

As an aside to the Original Poster here in: Wheeler in his "Raptors of Western North America" shows a picture of a Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk in flight at Plate 445. He has a note in it that the Dark Morph is a "Rare morph constituting 1% of population."

Click to expand...

Good to know. I am not very familiar with its morphs. Peterson and National Geographic Complete Birds of North America also mention a rufous morph. Is this still a thing, or it is basically the same as dark morph?

Also, eBird photos of Ferruginous Hawks of SW Manitoba (including my own) show obviously light morph.

khustochka said:

Thanks everyone for your input.



Good to know. I am not very familiar with its morphs. Peterson and National Geographic Complete Birds of North America also mention a rufous morph. Is this still a thing, or it is basically the same as dark morph?

Also, eBird photos of Ferruginous Hawks of SW Manitoba (including my own) show obviously light morph.

Click to expand...

I didn't see any reference to a "rufous morph" of the Ferrouginous Hawk in Wheelers discussion of the Raptor. There are 11 closely printed pages of comments so I could well have missed it.

There are 2 pictures of the same "adult female intermediate (rufous) morph" at plates #442 and #443 taken in Feb. It notes "rufous underparts and underwing coverts."

At page 376 of his Western Edition Wheeler has a paragraph on Color morph status. He notes that "Intermediate, dark Intermediate, and dark morphs have not been categorized separately in previous literature........ ."

"Based on data from 15 seasons (authors data), intermediate and dark intermediate morphs comprise only 5% of the birds on the Great Plains. True dark morphs comprise only 1% of the wintering population."

I would note that the darker morphs do seem to be in the minority of Ferruginous Hawks. The 24 photographs show 16 light morphs, 1 dark morph, and 7 intermediate dark morphs.

Hope this helps you a bit.

Bob