Hi Tweets,

Back in June 1996 I queried the list about a strange marking on a Red-tail,
but there was no response. Well, I've beeen looking in the literature and
still can't find anything on it, so I'm gonna try again. Private or public
replies welcome.

Thx

M

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net


>Hi Tweets,
>
>Saw a strange feature on an adult Red-tail yesterday near the Thunderbird
>Stadium at UBC. 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 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?

Thanks