Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Bird Help!

I was driving home from the grocery store, and about three blocks from my house, at this little park, I saw what looked like a cat at first.  But I stopped, went around, pulled to the side, and brought out my binoculars, and it was a bird!  Then I drove home, got my camera and zoom lens, and went back.  The bird was still there!  So I took some pictures.


I think this is an immature Ferruginous Hawk.  That would be a first for me, and a fairly rarish bird for this area, but it's migration time, and immature birds sometimes go a bit off the usual track.

Can anyone either help me make a better ID or have more confidence about the Ferruginous one, please?


UPDATE:  I got in touch with a local(sort of) raptor center, and they put me in touch with an expert, and he kindly explained that it's an immature (2012) Red-Tail Hawk.  I feel like such a noob.  Still, it was COOL to see!
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8 comments:

  1. Fie upon this quiet life!8:21 PM

    I don't know what the bird is, but wow! It's gorgeous! What a find, eh?

    I know that there's some way you can use an actual image to search on Google, but I am not sure how to do it. Maybe there's an online forum that you can consult for how to do an image search on an image you have??

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  2. meg8:31 PM

    Hm. Ferruginous wouldn't be my first guess, since it hasn't got the rufous legs or tail. If I absolutely had to guess, I'd guess at an immature short-tailed hawk, but I can't judge size from the photos.

    But you're dead right about the juvenile -- just the way he's standing screams "teenage doofus."

    Also: stunning photos!

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  3. The Mad Dreamer8:46 PM

    I'll ask my partner tomorrow morning and let you know her verdict. She's a bird person.

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  4. Bardiac9:04 PM

    Thanks, all, just to clarify: it was BIG.

    Short tailed hawks would be very, very uncommon up in the upper midwest.

    The two hawks with feathered legs that I see in my Sibley are the Ferruginous and the Rough Legged. But the white underside isn't what I see in Sibley for the Rough Legged (though it would be much more expected around here).

    Size-wise, in the upper pictures, that's about a half a squirrel left that it's eating.

    Finally, the rough-legged look like they have a less robust beak; this bird's looks bigger.

    Thanks again for the help :)

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  5. Anonymous5:52 AM

    My good friend the birder thinks that it might be a ferruginous hawk or a broad-winged hawk. She also says that hawks are notoriously difficult to identify.

    Whatever it is, it's a beautiful bird!

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  6. Bardiac3:07 PM

    I just got an email from a local expert, and he explained that it's an immature Red Tail. I feel like a noob, but a MUCH smarter noob!

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  7. The Mad Dreamer5:55 PM

    My partner concurs with your expert, and specifies that it's probably between one and two years old.

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  8. Pilgrim/Heretic12:47 PM

    Yep, we see those all over the place down here. He has such lovely pantaloons!

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