[obol] Re: Photos: Unknown Hawk Species
- From: "Olin Allen" <olinallen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2015 23:09:19 -0800
Folks:
For what it's worth, Bill Clark is virtually certain that the dark red-tail
that Jim photographed at Baskett Slough is a Harlan's, although he would
like to see the upper surface of the tail for confirmation (no surprise
there!). I agree with Mike's statement that, "Just because a well respected
individual favors a certain ID doesn't make the ID correct." Yet, I would
think that the opinions of certain individuals might carry more weight than
others. In this case, Bill has examined several thousand live birds,
photographs and museum skins of dark red-tails - probably many times more
than the rest of us put together - so surely that counts for something.
Some commenters mentioned the brown or rufous color of this bird in deciding
that it wasn't a Harlan's. Sorry, but I don't see that color at all. This
bird has the blackish plumage that is typical of Harlan's. I have seen both
"chocolate" and rufous morphs of red-tails, and their colors are much warmer
than this bird. I also don't think the photos allow for determination of
the extent of feathering of the tarsus. However, it's interesting to note
that all birds that Bill considers to be Harlan's (by plumage) have
feathering significantly farther down the tarsus than typical western
red-tails, although not as far down as rough-legs or golden eagles. Having
seen about 5 Harlan's in the hand, I can attest to how strikingly different
the tarsus feathering is between Harlan's and typical red-tails. The
difference is actually measurable and may be statistically significant.
Olin
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Olin Allen
Shangri-Llama Farm
Monmouth, Oregon
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