Mark Vernon wrote:
> There was a very interesting hawk at the Montlake Fill today. As I am
> still a beginner, this hawk challenged my identification skills. It
> was the size of a Red-tailed Hawk, but it seemed very tame, I was able
> to get directly below it as it was perched in a tree. It was not even
> slightly concerned about my presence. This hawk was very dark,
> especially the head. The tail was also dark with horizontal stripes
> visible. The light conditions were dark this morning so that may have
> affected the birds appearance. The beak seemed unusually small to me.
> There was some white mottled on the bird's back, and there was white
> on it's upper chest. I wanted to make it into a Rough-legged Hawk but
> that didn't seem to match. I assume that it is some form of dark
> Red-tailed Hawk.
>
I wonder if this is the bird I identified or mis-identified as a
Cooper's Hawk a few weeks ago. My reasoning was based on the marked
banding of the tail, white mottling of the dark back and small-seeming
bill. I'm pretty new at raptor ID too.

Dale

--
Dale Chase
(AKA ravenintherain)
Seattle, Washington
ccorax at blarg.net