Hawk ID (1 Viewer)

[NAL1212]

This hawk was sitting on a pole March 20th 2006 about 10 miles north of Raymondsville Texas. At first I thought Red-tail ,but no belly band. Any ideas as to its ID would be appreciated.

Nal1212

 

[steveo]

swainsons

 

[prairiemerlin]

This appears to be an unusually pale Red-tailed Hawk. I could be wrong, as I have no experience with Swainson's Hawks, but I still think it is a Red-tail. Any more photos?

 

[AlexC]

Agree with Neil - lacks the white face and the chestnut breast of a (light phase - which I assume is what we're talking here considering the pure white belly) Swainson's. Possibilities: Krider's Red-tailed and Short-tailed (extremely rare in region).

 

[Thayeri]

An older adult Buteo jamaicensis fuertesi, where you would expect it to be and looking like you would expect it to. The all dark head is of course the direct opposite of Krider's, and the very light rufous streaking on the body with a little darker streaking along the sides and near the white throat are expected for this primarily Mexican & Texan subspecies of Red-tailed Hawk, albeit on the light end of things in the actual belly area (unmarked is OK for this subspecies, but I do see multiple very light rufous streaks, and that is of course better). The similarly colored auriculars and supercilium stripe that while dark are somewhat lighter than the rest of the head, the very dark malar stripe, and the lack of a dark subterminal band on the tail are also what you look for in this subspecies, and shown well here. Nice Photo!

 

[AlexC]

An older adult Buteo jamaicensis fuertesi, where you would expect it to be and looking like you would expect it to. The all dark head is of course the direct opposite of Krider's, and the very light rufous streaking on the body with a little darker streaking along the sides and near the white throat are expected for this primarily Mexican & Texan subspecies of Red-tailed Hawk, albeit on the light end of things in the actual belly area (unmarked is OK for this subspecies, but I do see multiple very light rufous streaks, and that is of course better). The similarly colored auriculars and supercilium stripe that while dark are somewhat lighter than the rest of the head, the very dark malar stripe, and the lack of a dark subterminal band on the tail are also what you look for in this subspecies, and shown well here. Nice Photo!

*Sigh* There I go shooting my mouth off about subspecies that I don't know enough about. I really need to get Wheeler's...