ML79825931

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Dark morph bird perched near the pond. Viewed from dirt road on east side. Actually a "rufous morph": head uniformly dark brown, breast and belly uniform, a dark brown color with a rufous tinge when the angle of sun was right. Eyes dark. Tail was unbanded, with a uniform light color (whitish) underneath. Bill had yellow on cere and gape. A good comparison is Wheeler, "Raptors of Western North America," plates 441 and 442 (although the latter has white breast streaks). Distinguished from Rufous-morph Red tail by lack of tail banding; also, lighting conditions were such that red color would have shown through to ventral side. Rufous-morph Red-tail also has distinct contrast from breast to belly that this bird lacked. Photo is poor quality, taken by iPhone through scope, but at least shows rufous tinge. Dark morph Rough-leg has tail bands and more blackish-brown color rather than rufous.

Technical information

Model

iPhone 5c

Lens

iPhone 5c back camera 4.12mm f/2.4

ISO

50

Focal length

4.1 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/2.4

Shutter speed

1/638 sec

Dimensions

3264 pixels x 2448 pixels

Original file size

1.62 MB