Thursday, January 25, 2007

Pair Were Red-Shouldered Hawks

Last Sunday, a pair of hawks visited the Colvin Run Habitat. It is not all that uncommon to have a pair of hawks flying over head (at several hundred feet in altitude), but Sunday was the first time that a pair was observed perched in the Habitat.
So here is my best assessment of what type of hawk these two were (After reading Hawks From Every Angle by Jerry Liguori, I am completely convinced that true identification is nearly impossible for the novice observer and immature hawks. Nevertheless, here goes).
Each of these was slightly larger than a crow. The chest of both of these hawks is vibrant orange. The back is brown, with lighter streaking. Continuing with the next three photos when they took flight (sorry for the out of focus photos, but the hawk features are still seen), the tail has several broad black bands with narrow white bands. Their wings are banded black and white, with the clearly rufous shoulders underneath.
All in all, I believe that they were Red-Shouldered Hawks.

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