Underside of the bird in flight!
Here is the underside of a bird in flight that could use your identification. I knew this needed to be a birdQUIZ after my first misidentification when I hadn’t used my binoculars (I was mainly looking at behavior). But when I finally brought my optics up . . . this bird was then correctly identify by looking at its obvious field marks.
If you saw this bird flying . . . . what would you identify it as?
EDIT: This bird was photographed in the month of March in New York State.
19 responses so far ↓
Peeter Musta // March 27, 2008 at 11:05 pm |
My guess would be a dark morph Broad-winged Hawk.
Patrick // March 27, 2008 at 11:12 pm |
I’ll go with dark morph Rough-legged Hawk.
aullori // March 28, 2008 at 4:00 am |
If I was trying to ID it for you I’d call it a broad winged hawk – for me tho (if I saw it flying) I’d have to say rough legged female cuz we don’t get many broadwinged around these parts. so my offical ans? broad winged hawk.
Mike // March 28, 2008 at 9:29 am |
I’m going to go with the Roughleg because of the tail markings.
MelBerg // March 28, 2008 at 5:16 pm |
I’d believe it to be a Broad-winged Hawk as well.
Pinar // March 28, 2008 at 5:41 pm |
I’ve been looking up different birds (google) and when I looked up broad winged hawk I noticed they have a lot more light colour on their wings, upto the tips. Only the tips appear dark with bands of dark lines… so can it be a broad winged hawk??? Or…. is it some sort of buzzard??? I’m going to go with…. Jackal Buzzard.
AnimalGuy // March 28, 2008 at 9:16 pm |
I think dark morph Broad-winged hawk.
Pinar // March 28, 2008 at 10:47 pm |
Looking up Jackal Buzzard, I noticed it is an African bird of prey…
so if it is a a Jackal Buzzard it flew quite a distance to get to New York! I’m still learning so let’s scrap the buzzard idea…
Samuel // March 29, 2008 at 7:50 am |
I think it is a Dark Adult Male Rough-legged Hawk.
mon@rch // March 29, 2008 at 11:53 pm |
It has been interesting hearing about the process of elimination between these different species of hawks! I can promise you that this wasn’t a Jackal Buzzard or I probably would have been little more excited about the find! I will give the answer here soon after others have the ability to put their 2 cents in on which hawk this is!
Pinar // March 31, 2008 at 10:16 am |
Red shoulder hawk?
Chris W // March 31, 2008 at 10:51 pm |
Wow, tricky tricky. Good thing you mentioned location or we all might have been waay off.
My first impression was Zone-tailed Hawk, but that would be VERY rare in NY. The next logical choice is Dark morph Rough-legged Hawk. However, there’s a few things that don’t quite match up.
A closer look at the tail reveals a secondary band. Rough-legs have only one tail band. Also note the uncharacteristic black marking along the trailing edge of the wing. Next, note the wing shape. It is buteo shaped but is more rounded rather than elongated like a Rough-leg’s wing. Broad-winged Hawk you might say? close. not quite. There are a couple more things to look at. first off, note the narrow white bands on the tail. Broad-wings would display a wider white tail band. Second, note the time of year. A Broad-winged Hawk in March in NY? not likely at all. Once again, wing shape comes in to play. Broad-winged Hawks tend to look very compact. This bird has longer wings than that. more similar to a Red-tailed. also note the short primaries. Rough-legs display longer primaries. Having said all that, I have to conclude that it is a dark morph RED-SHOULDERED HAWK.
Peeter // April 2, 2008 at 1:24 am |
I thought the faint or pale banding on the wings, rather than the more pronounced banding on red-shouldered is what might distinguish this as a broad-winged?
Tim H // April 2, 2008 at 9:32 am |
Chris, I didn’t know that Red-shouldered Hawk are polymorphic. In fact, I’ve never heard of a dark morph RSHA. What is your source?
In my opinion, this is no-doubt a dark morph Broad-winged Hawk. That single white band on the tail eliminates Red-tailed and Rough-legged. The large and contrasting amount of white on the wingtips rules out Zone-tailed, which is unheard of in NY anyway. According to eBird, the earliest Spring arrival of a BWHA in NY was March 12th, 1938. So, it’s possible!
Tell us what you think, mon@rch!
Pinar // April 2, 2008 at 11:00 am |
I am really curious to find out what the answer to this mystery is… the suspense is killing me
When I guessed buzzard first (albeit it was way off in that it was jackal buzzard) and then red-shouldered hawk (which is also identified as a buzzard), I looked at the following site (and others) for clues: http://www.peregrinefund.org/explore_raptors/hawks/redshldr.html
mon@rch // April 2, 2008 at 8:43 pm |
I have enjoyed reading the many thoughts about this birdQUIZ and I am ready to give the Answer!!
Zone-tailed Hawk . . . Ya right . . . this is New York State!
Red-shouldered Hawk . . . well this photo shows too much white in the primaries-secondary and the Red-shouldered Hawks have multiple dark bands and narrow white bands in the tail. This bird only has one dark band and followed by smaller dark and light bands on the tail. I have never heard of any Red-shouldered Hawks getting this dark or that they have a dark morph.
A dark Broadwing is the next possibility . . as mentioned already, it is very rare to have Broadwing back here in New York in early March!! Besides that the Broadwing should have only one “white” band on its tail (not one black) that should be noticeable and this tail in this picture shows smaller bands closer to the base of the tail. . . . I also should note that I didn’t give out earlier that we had two of these birds side by side flying together. Sibley also noted that the dark morph are rare; breed only on western edge of range’ migrants are rare east of Great Plains. It isn’t a Broadwing!!
Here is the David Sibley Guide to Birds drawing of the Rough-legged Hawk next to the original photo. This photo was taken in Rough-legged Hawk country, the single band on the tail is the same to the drawing. The modeling towards the base of the tail might be due more to the photo quality than actually having some smaller banding in the tail. I am more than 100% sure that this is a male dark morphed Rough-legged Hawk!!
Pinar // April 2, 2008 at 9:15 pm |
Wow… thank you for that drawing and the details to pay attention to.
Tim H // April 3, 2008 at 11:53 am |
Okay, you convinced me now. Rough-legged it is!
Frances // July 10, 2008 at 5:35 am |
It’s a buzzard of course!