Linda,
I can't determine how many individual birds are involved in these photos, but
they are all Red-tailed Hawks, and those that I can age (all but one) appear to
be adults. Merlins are tiny compared to a Red-tailed Hawk, barely larger than
an American Kestrel, so those ought to be sortable on the basis of size alone.
A good rule of thumb in the Willamette Valley, if you see a large hawk,
particularly a large hawk sitting in a tree, it's a Red-tailed until proven
otherwise. The Western Red-tailed Hawk is highly variable with not only classic
light and dark morph birds, but a number of intermediate looks in between the
darkest all chocolate-brown birds and those with fairly bright white
underparts. There some with buffy to cinnamon colored underparts and also
reddish-brown dark types.
Dave Irons
Portland, OR
To: OBOL@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: linda@xxxxxxxx
Subject: [obol] raptor id help desperately needed
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2016 18:10:06 -0800
Can't believe I can't figure these hawks out. I must be getting dumber
the older I get. Would very much appreciate help. We saw them on my
Grand Ronde raptor route today.
http://lindafink-birdnotes.blogspot.com/2016/01/raptor-route-mystery-hawks.html
Linda Fink
--
http://lindafink.blogspot.com/
http://lindafink-birdnotes.blogspot.com/
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