At 01:58 PM 10/12/97 -0700, you wrote:
> Also, this bird was different to the
>usual run of 'calurus' Red-tails around here, being very crisply marked, an
>indistinct but definite white 'V' on the back, and having a bone white
>ground to the underparts setting off the dark arrowheads of the belly-band.
>The tail had a dark subterminal band with about five or six very thin dark
>bands within the red of the tail. Any ideas as to possible subspecies, Don?

Western lights vary a lot, as do eastern lights, and darks, and every other
kind of red-tail :) The narrow dark bands makes it sound like a Western,
though.

>Is a RTHA X RLHA hybrid inconceivable in nature?

Palmer (Handbook of North American Birds), says, under "Hybrids"

"None reported". Then talks about a female which pair-bonded with
a male Swainson's in a zoo, no eggs. That's it.

> Could this have been a falconer's experiment?

Artificial insemination? I'm not sure why a falconer would want to
do this, rough-legs have small feet (for a buteo) and normally don't
take prey as large 'tails. Maybe Tom Foote could shed light on this.

It doesn't sound mixed-up enough to be a hybrid, anyway. Maybe a great
horned chunked its nape and some of the feathers grew back white or you're
seeing the fluffy white stuff peeking out of damaged feathers, etc.




- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net