Bill and Nancy:
>The tail is horizontally barred.

If the hawk's tail has narrowish white bands on a black tail,
red-shouldered's sounding pretty good. Red-tailed is not.

As for comments regarding this being far, far out of range - a friend
banded a wintering red-shouldered in central Nevada a few years ago.
This is the heart of Great Basin country, arid, high-desert, high
temps in the teens during the time he was banding (usually in January
as buteos normally weren't hungry and desperate enough beforehand
to come to his traps reliably). And we've had young hanging out
in an oasis literally on the western edge of the Great Salt Desert
for two years in a row near the Goshutes, where I band.

I don't know if this species is starting to expand its range due
to settlement influences - big willows, cottonwoods, and poplars
(the oasis I mention has all three + a big guzzler), or if more
folks are birding and finding them, or what.

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>