Hi Tweets,

Saw a strange feature on an adult Red-tail 4/13 near the Thunderbird
Stadium on the University of BC campus. The bird was hunting at roadside
from the light poles beside the rough ground to the west of the stadium.

Firstly, it didn't seem the usual run-of-the-mill rufous-morph Red-tail
with its smeared-out ill-defined features we usually see around here. It
was very white below, with a wide crisp belly-band made up of
cleanly-defined black spear- and arrow-shaped patterns on a white ground.
The back and coverts were extensively spotted white in a rough 'V', while
the tail was brick-pink with pale cream terminal tips, a dark subterminal
band, and several narrow faint bands. The plumage corresponded most closely
to that of the Western light morph adult described in Clark & Wheeler's
Hawks on p. 70.

But here's the feature that's so weird for a Red-tail: on its nape was a
crisp little dark inverted triangle circumscribed by a pale circle. I've
seen this mark before on the napes of dark-morph Rough-legged Hawks, but I
didn't know it was a feature of Red-tail plumage also. Is this a generic
buzzard beauty-mark? Has anyone else seen this mark on any buzzard other
than a Rough-legged?


Michael Price The only alien planet is Earth.
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net - J. G. Ballard