Swainson's Hawk - Kat Byrd
Report

Contributor

Date

Location

Mission Trails Regional Park--northeast (dam to grasslands)
San Diego, California, United States
Media from this location Illustrated Checklist
Map
Map Coordinates: 32.8410988, -117.0411836
Age
Not specified
Sex
Not specified

Observation details

Flying high with adult RTHA above Grasslands Trail Loop 11:06a, darker coloring and contrast seemed out of place. Having only seen adult Swainson's, heavy mottling instead of bib caused some uncertainty about what we were looking at. Dark malar extended into throat, streaked and mottled breast, underwing pattern consistent with Swainson's with sharply contrasting two-toned colors of pale underwing coverts and dark flight feathers, reverse from RTHA. Difficult to see with glare but head seemed to have some fading. Subterminal band visible on finely barred tail. Possibly a sub-adult light/intermediate morph? Some rufous laced into underwing coverts. My pix are sub-par but hopefully, a sharper image to be added. Note that tail was not red, though sun cast a bit of orange in one of the pix.

Technical information

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