Lyn,

Your first hunch was correct. The photo shows a Red-tailed Hawk adult,
fairly typical of many in the Northwest that show a light rusty wash across
the upper breast. You can see in the photo just a corner of the rusty brown
tail of an adult. Possibly the bird's more alert posture shows a heightened
awareness to movement nearby. Nice photo!

Good birding, Bob

A bird designed to puzzle birders from eastern N. America, who see much
paler adults on average.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lyn Topinka" <pointers at pacifier.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 8:20 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] Hawk ID help needed ...


>
> hi group ... I'm almost hesitant to post but I could use help with this
> bird ... I'm thinking a Red-Tailed however I'm new to birding this year
> and all of my IDs aren't that great ... I've gone thru the books and I've
> Googled lots of pix ... however there's something about the posture of
> this bird and the dark coloration and lack of white which makes me
> hesitant to say it definitely IS a Red-Tailed ... his location was
> Ridgefield NWR up by the entrance gate ... I've seen lots of Red-Tails
> down below on the Refuge land and all of the ones I've seen have much more
> white patching on the chest and they seem to "slouch" (my term and most
> likely not a technical bird term) when they sit ... this guy doesn't ...
>
> http://englishriverwebsite.com/RidgefieldNWR/Images07Sept/ridgefield_NWR_hawk_on_post_09-19-07.jpg
>
> thanks in advance,
> Lyn
> pointers at pacifier dot com
>
>
>
>
>
> Lyn Topinka
> EnglishRiverWebsite.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters