** Jerry asked -

<<<<<<
Help! What am I to do, my head is spinning, my eyes are impregnated with hawk
photos and drawings, and I round dents around my eyesockets.

They can all hover or almost--the immatures can look alike--hmmmm maybe I should
apply an eraser to my lifelist and take all the Hawks off. '-) I think I could
keep the Red-tail--unless-----?

Seriously--is there any one ID mark on a Rough-leg that would distinguish it
from
the rest while in flight? I thinks maybe Gulls is easier.>>>>>

First of all, let's get one think perfectly straight - gulls are *not* easier.
However, there is never any magic bullet when dealing with buteos (or any other
bird group for that matter). Minutes lead to hours, lead to days, lead to years,
of practice which when accumulated will enable you to deal with a fair degree of
certainty with bird IDs (the hardest part is letting the tough IDs go un-IDed).

What do I look for in Roughies? In a straight-up comparison with Red-tails,
Roughies have a longer and narrower wing, a tendency to hover-hunt, wings in a
slight dihedral in a soar, smaller body, smaller bill, legs feathered to toes,
and *much* smaller feet. Needless to say, you would have to be pretty close to a
bird - preferably a perched one - to see the last three. The whitish rump patch
only holds for light morph birds, and given this species extreme variation in
plumage, not useful for all plumage types. Even the usually reliable dark
underwing "wrist mark" fades into obscurity on dark morph birds.

- Jack




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Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jbowling at direct.ca