[Photo taken by Rod Olsen & friends]
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Rod Olsen is a childhood friend of well-known hawkwatcher Frank Nicoletti. Rod, Frank, and John Askildsen [Westchester NY and Cape Cod] birded with me from the time they were 13 to 18 years old. Rod now teaches in Middlebury VT; bands hawks and owls with his students... time flies, I guess. [John leads pelagic trips and birding tours to Costa Rica, etc. and has maintained a professionally staffed hawk watch at Butler Sanctuary NY for over twenty years now in his leadership role with the Bedford NY Audubon Society]. The first paid observer at that site? Frank Nicoletti -- his first professional season as a hawkwatcher.
Here Rodney holds a typical maritime Redtail with western-like characteristics. The back is blackish; there is a major league subterminal tail band with fine barring radiating from the base of the tail here. The golden head with black malar is reminiscent of a bird you might see in the western US. You might hear this plumage referred to as a "blonde bird" amongst Redtail connoisseurs.
There's lots more to describe just on this bird's back, but another time...
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[Photo taken by Rod Olsen & friends]
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Meghan Carson Olsen gives us a frontal view of the same bird. Rich reddish coloration extends even out into the underwing coverts and a widening belly band can be seen here. Now you can see this bird is "hooded" all the way around the head, like a Western Red-tailed Hawk.
If you haven't seen Jerry Ligouri's Birding magazine article, these first two images are like the in-hand shots Jerry and Frank Nicoletti took while banding a hundred Redtails a day in March back in the early '90s.
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[Photo taken by Rod Olsen & friends]
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One of Rod's students holds a fairly orangey Redtail. But the interesting feature of this bird is its size! Now this is a small Redtail!!
It is not rare at all in the east in migration or as a winter resident to observe a profoundly small Redtail. In flight, this bird has a quick, one-piece wingbeat with an accipter-like cadence... at a distance where plumage isn't easy to catch a glimpse of, these guys pass for Broadwings in eastern Massachusetts... and have at Plum Island around April 20th [the generic peak of the spring adult BW flight inland, but not along the coast].
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Here's a wintering pair of Redtails, again at Nine Acre Corner, Concord/Sudbury MA.
They arrive the last week in October and have utilized the same early morning and late afternoon perches as a pair.
During the day the male [right] and female split up and hunt. I could find them by their habits at different times of the day.
As I have mentioned before, Broadwings, Redtails, and Red-shoulders may be able to be sexed by features other than their size. Can you see a plumage difference in these birds that might be employed in telling males from females in western-like eastern Redtails?
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Another Nine Acre Corner, Concord/Sudbury MA Eastern Red-tailed Hawk. Are we having fun yet? |
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And just because you've read this far: here's a Red-shouldered Hawk with a belly band. This is a mild rendition of the definitive Redtail field mark, but in another buteo species. Some Shoulders display a stronger version.
Broad-winged Hawks can have belly bands too. I have pictures... but you wouldn't confuse this Red-shoulder with a Redtail. Of course, given a good look, good i.d. follows, right?
But what if all you got was a glimpse as it flew by, or, as you drove by and you see what you thought was the one defining field mark of one common or rare species... then what?! You simply can't rely on just one thing or make an i.d. when you see just one thing.
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