I photographed this buteo at Crockett Lake on Whidbey yesterday, and while my first impression of it was that it's a Rough-legged Hawk, because of the dark wrist marks, white wing windows, whitish tail base, and hovering, I wasn't 100% sure that it's not a weirdly-colored dark Red-tailed Hawk with a wide dark tail-band. The reddish tinge to the tail above the bar and the darkish head make me lean toward Red-tail now. I looked all over the internet and can't see that a Rough-leg ever has reddish markings on the tail, but the terminal black band seemed wide for a Red-tail. Didn't get a look at it from the top. I put some photos on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74892104 at N04/albums/72157677311904160 .


Carla Corin

Oak Harbor