Soaring hawk. Massachusetts, USA (1 Viewer)

It was way up there. It was almost stationary as it appeared to be sailing into the prevailing wind allowing it to say stationary with respect to the ground.

No "red tail" and without that I'm at a loss IDing hawks from the underside.

Breast band suggests Red-tailed Hawk.

And the same suggestion is coming from the dark marks on the front end of the wing. Red-tails only develop red in the tail as they become adults. Redtail it is.

Niels

Thanks. Hawks are hard for me.

crazyfingers said:

Thanks. Hawks are hard for me.

Click to expand...

Red-tails are often easy to identify; like this one. Especially here in Eastern North America where they are lightly colored underneath. Look at the leading edge of the underwings in your photo. See those dominant dark "Patagial" bars extending from the neck to the middle of the wing. All Red-tailed Hawks have them and they are easily seen. On Dark Morph RTH's out west they are hard to see.

Now look at the belly. See the large dark "cummerbund" across the belly. It's called the "belly band." Naturally! All Red-tailed Hawks have it. Again, it can be impossible to see on Dark Morph western Red-tailed Hawks.

And if you have only a back view you will see white triangular stripes on the Hawk's Scapulars. They are usually described as "Back Straps." This is another field mark for a RTH.

And finally, here in the east about 40% of the hawks you see will be Red-tails. And in the winter that percentage will be higher.

Bob

Thanks. What you describe show up in my Sibley guide but not so well in my smaller one by Tekielo. The Peterson guide is in-between the two.