Contribuidor
Fecha
Localidad
- Edad
- No especificado
- Sexo
- No especificado
Detalles de la observación
Adult RTHA. We thought this was a possible Harlan’s x Western intergrade. I posted my photos and description on the Raptor ID Facebook group and an expert (Mike Borle) weighed in and said it is a Harlan’s. He said, “The blackish plumage with white breast streaking, light-ish undertail coverts on a dark Red-tail, and rufous-gray mottled tail type are all great ID points for intermediate-morph Harlan's. Thanks for sharing.” Then I asked if Harlan’s could have red tails, and he responded, “Harlan's of every color morph commonly show rufous in their tails. Your bird's tail is a bit more muted but in the same ballpark as this one courtesy of bander Sylvain Bourdages. Search for Sylvain and Mike Blom in the Macaulay Library and you'll get a really good taste of Harlan's tail variation. Those 2 guys get their hands on more Harlan's than anyone on earth and their galleries really are a wonderful representation of far northern Red-tailed Hawks.” I emailed hawk expert Neil Paprocki. He said, “It's a bit hard to tell what's going on with the tail in your photos, but it does look mostly red. harlani can certainly have mostly red tails, and I would probably still call this bird a harlani. See this harlani I captured and outfitted with a GPS transmitter in South Dakota earlier this winter with a mostly red tail: https://ebird.org/checklist/S98648304. These birds with mostly red tails could certainly be intergrades with another subspecies (abieticola would be most likely for a bird in Indiana I would think)… One thing to note is that these red-tailed harlani are putative: i.e., we're assuming they're harlani but genomic data is needed to really determine if they're pure harlani or intergrades with other ssp.“ My field notes: At first glance I thought it was a Harlan’s. When perched facing us, it looked blackish except for the contrasting white mottled breast. The head had very slight mottling. The undertail coverts were white with black barring, contrasting strongly with the black belly. From the back, the perched bird didn’t show a “v” on the scapulars. Depending on the light, however, the tail looked either dark greyish or dark red, with a dark terminal band. In flight, from above, there were one or two light tail feathers (R1s I think) that may have been albino, but I never got a good enough look to say they weren’t light grey. The upperparts in flight were blackish with very little scattered white mottling. Underwing coverts were dark with some black and white mottling. Remiges had a thick dark terminal edge. Primary tips were dark, and the outer primaries were faintly barred - I couldn’t see the barred outer primaries in person but they are visible in at least one photo.
Información técnica
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- Original file size
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