>For all you hawk experts out there, could you please help with
>identification of the Red-shouldered Hawk (RSHA)(first year) that is at
>McNary Refuge. Here are some details noted by Tony Greager 1/24/96. Your
>comments are appreciated.
>
>Characteristics that suggest RSHA:
>
>1) Barred leg feathers - heavy
>2) Barred undertail coverts - heavy
>3) Checkered or barred belly - not vertically striped
>4) Yellow legs
>5) some appearance of a smaller or shorter bill, smaller overall size,
>longer winged
>6) has primaries with a light base - only from below, doesn't show from top
>7) tail striped
>8) upper wing coverts and scapulars are uniformly fringed/ notched with
>white giving an overall mottled appearence. Red-tails generally have
>limited white fringing forming 2 distinct white streaks on each side of the
>back.
>
>Characteristics that may not suggest RSHA:
>
>1) Way out of range
>2) Frequently hovers (over open field)
>3) glides like RTHA (wing and body attitude)
>4) soars like a RTHA (flap to glide ratio, attitude)
>5) soars with other RTHA
>6) flaps like a RTHA
>7) wing width similar to RTHA
>8) no window or crescent on upper wing
>9) no rufous or tawny coloration apparent
>10) barring on front of bird not uniform above belly - some clearing right
>under chin, barring continues up on side
>
>Are any of these totally inconsistent with RSHA?
>
>Tony saw this bird flying with other RTHA and could not separate it by
>behavior or silhouette naked eye, only by markings with binoculars.
>
>What else should we be looking for? Since we don't usually have these birds
>here, we are trying to make sure of the identification.
>
>Bill and Nancy LaFramboise

This doesn't sound like a Red-shoulder to me. Red-shoulders are
considerably smaller than Red-tails, probably weighs from 50-70% as much.
In your second list, 2)-10) don't sound like Red-shoulder. In your first
list, I would say not a single characteristic points unequivocally to
Red-shoulder, and all of them can be found in Red-tails.

Immature Red-shoulders are either entirely streaked below (eastern) or
heavily barred and streaked (western). Immatures of the western subspecies
show reddish "shoulders" (actually the lesser coverts). They should never
show the clear area on the breast characteristic of Red-tail. The tail in
a Red-shoulder is *dark with light bars*, that of an immature Red-tail is
light with dark bars; the description "striped" above doesn't make the tail
pattern clear (and, by the way, "striped" usually refers to markings along,
rather than transverse to, the body axis).

Red-shoulders fly with rapid wingbeats, more like a large accipiter than a
Red-tail. Red-shoulders are also woodland-based birds, and I'd be shocked
to see one way out on the prairie. As was pointed out briefly in the
kesstrel vs. sharp-shin thread, where a bird is and what it is doing are
very powerful parts of the field-identification process.

Why in heck did anyone call this bird a Red-shoulder in the first place?

Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416