What we see here is a little preflight wing stretching activity prior turning around [in the next frame]. We can tell this is an older adult by the dark eye. But from the front and without seeing the tail, from a greater distance. how do even know this is an adult? From the front, without seeing the either the eye color or the tail color, and even though the barring on this bird is very heavy, it is an adult by the barring. But how?

Within the belly band, immies show no fine detail. Along the flank on the side with the open wing, this bird has some barring and checking. You can apply this within these pages by looking at belly bands of adults and immatures. No matter how sparse the belly band on an immature the markings are not chevrons, nor are they fine bars. Always like they were made with a child's crayon, not an adults sharpened pencil or drafting pen.

Now you can check out tail banding above dark wide subterminal band. Is this a borealis x calurus bird because of the partially banded tail? Probably not. The only way to really answer this is through DNA or one of serveral tracking methods to see where he goes from here. But generally, the richer the coloration overall, the more likely this will included a wider than Eastern subterminal band and some other tail markings at the base of the tail, or in the most saturated cases, the barring will extend from the tip upward.

And even though this bird's back has the white erasures, the wings tips are very dark... blackened wing tips [not a menu choice, under appetizer]. At a very great distance, blackish tail/wing gestalt is a Roughleg tell. But then you'd need to add in the rest of the back and head to know the tendancies and judge the odds.

Question. Am I being anthropomorphic here?

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Or is there?