[obol] ID of wintering whitish buteo on Sauvie Island
- From: "WLRisser" <wlrisser@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <portland-area-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 11:30:30 -0800
Tom McNamara was the first to call attention to the apparent immature
red-tail on Sauvie Island that had a lot of white in its plumage. Some of
you saw this bird: it hung around the area on Reeder Rd. where Oak Island
Rd. turns off. It often perched on the traffic signs across from the
entrance to Oak Island Rd. It was pretty clearly an immature red-tail but
not a typical western red-tail subspecies. Jan took some pictures that we
sent to the hawk guru Brain Sullivan who was kind enough to reply. He said
that it is "mostly a Harlan's hawk but not a totally classic one." He
couldn't rule out some intergradation with another subspecies. He said that
the streaked crown, white breast, and fail thick tail bands seemed perfect.
The belly band was fine. The flight feathers weren't classic for a Harlans,
which has usually had boldly banded outer primaries, but not always. He
concluded that "there's enough Harlans here to call it that in eBird, so
please do record it as such!"
Jan's photostream is below if you want to look at this bird.
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/janrisser/sets/72157649893268097/>
https://www.flickr.com/photos/janrisser/sets/72157649893268097/
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