Subject: Re: Weird Buteo?? Buteo buteo??
Date: Jan 23 10:10:39 1997
From: Don Baccus - donb at rational.com


>I took the opportunity to look at the photos of the buteo. I am impressed
>with two of the images, it surprises me how well those appear having been
>scanned and all... the other photos were too challenging for discerning details.

Actually, I found them all to look a bit hazy and indistinct, particularly
given the fact that the image files all seem to be about 200KB long!

With a little care, the same quality can be had in a 15-20KB image, and
it downloads a *lot* faster.

>Based on what I could tell, the bird appears to be an immature Red-tailed
>Hawk. One photo shows the tail pattern very well, that looks like imm. RT
>Hawk.

I see nothing inconsistent with immy RT.

I'm a bit annoyed by the presumptious nature of the text.

"The same bird as seen last year was relocated..." Harumph. If that
is true, then the bird is neither RT nor Red-shouldered, which I assume
is why the comment "possible Buteo buteo" is included. This would at
least force those who last year tried to convince us that it was
red-shouldered to admit that they were wrong.

The fact that the bird "appears very similar to last year's", given that
last year's was an immy RT, is no evidence for it being the same bird.
While RTs vary a lot in plumage, it is also true that many RTs look like
virtual clones of each other. When I see an immy RT, if it's a light
morph I expect it to look very much like other light morphs I've
seen. Ditto rufous and dark morph birds. The only truly unique
redtails I've ever seen are the coal-black melanistic bird I've got
loaded on my webpages, and an albinistic rehab bird I once saw. I've
never seen duplicates of these two (though neither are unknown, I just
ain't seen more of them).

Lacking postive proof that the bird is the same as the one seen last year,
I'm going to invoke the law of least astonishment and claim that a) it's
an immy bird of one of our North American buteoines and therefore b) it
ain't the same bird as the one seen last year.

Harumph.


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, at (NEW) http://donb.photo.net