Hi All,

I'm birding my way down to central Oregon for my annual float trip on the Deschutes River. Yesterday (Thursday), I came across an interesting raptor in the Columbia Gorge and was able to get some images. The bird was quite reddish color on the underparts and with a slightly lighter color head than a typical RTHA (to my eye, at least). Usually when I'm shooting images, hawks tend to take off eventually and it's possible to see the tail. This bird was in a position where I couldn't see the back or the tail at all - and he never did take off before I left. Looking at the bird live and then in the images, I thought (wished, I suppose) that it was a juvenile Red Shouldered Hawk, which has similar looking underparts and a darker head than the adult (ref. Hawks from Every Angle). But the head also looked enough like a RTHA that I decided to send the image to Bud Anderson at the Falcon Research Group for his ID. The bird in question - http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/de!
tail.as
p?photoID=4198292&cat=38975 - is an "erythristic" [Red Morph] adult RTHA. The key per Bud is the eye color - which is red, rather than the juvenile yellow. An adult Red-Shouldered would have a much lighter and redder head. Plus, the juvenile would be molting noticeably at this time. The raptor learning curve continues...!

Thanks to Bud for the timely help with the ID.

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com