ML648504148

Observation details

*Epically beautiful bird; second state record in ebird after a legendary Worcester bird in its 11th year. It first lit pretty close to us facing away, and didn’t demand immediate attention since the back presents typical rtha with the nice V. But after a second Nate goes “that’s a really banded tail”, and it was indeed pretty freakin banded. So of course the moment our interest is piqued it takes off and flies a quarter mile directly away through the woods. After being unable to locate it for a while, Nate was the first to spot a raptor nest above us, where the crown of a bird was just peeking out. It required a scope, but after a minute it was becoming clear what this bird was. In the nest all I could see was that the throat was darker than a red tail ever should be (in an orangey way, not like a darker rtha ssp). Suddenly the bird started calling, and it was the most perfectly hideous medium between both species. I've only ever heard Blue Jays sound remotely like that, and Nate agreed it sounds like when jays hedge their bets and imitate multiple hawks at once. When it finally emerged and began to hunt, we got to see what a truly beautiful specimen it is (gives the worcester bird a run for its money). We kept remarking about how strong the genes of both parents are here. It caught a couple rodents while we watched, and kept returning to the nest, calling often. Notably, there were not other raptors around (beside flyovers). I don't know how to judge size of a hybrid in terms of sexing the individual, but it just felt to us like a female, maybe more behaviorally than anything. It could be struggling to find a mate, sitting on sticks in vain. This isn't an exact location to protect its attempt at breeding, but maybe it will continue to be a local even if unsuccessful.