Jack Bowling wrote:

> ** Jerry asked -
>
> Seriously--is there any one ID mark on a Rough-leg that would distinguish it
> from
> the rest while in flight?
>
> 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).

We have been doing alot of "letting the tough IDs go" with more then just Hawks.

Next week when we get our new scanner I think I will set up a raptor homepage and
have the birds numbered and then anyone that wants to, can ID the bird my its number
and post it. I know it would help us and maybe others also.

> 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.

Thanks for the reply

Jerry and Sandy Converse
Grand Coulee, WA

>
>
> - Jack
>
> ------------------
> Jack Bowling
> Prince George, BC
> jbowling at direct.ca