Help Identify Please Part 1

I am working on a book of my favorite photos and would like to identify the birds in my book. I appreciate anybody who can help me. This bird was taken in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming in the summer.

Fairly sure it's a Red-tailed Hawk. Tried to see if I could make it into a Swainson's, but couldn't!

Resin

Nice Shot!

The tell-tale red tail is missing. Without that, it looks more like a Swainson's to me. Fairly common in that area, too.

This message was edited Oct 27, 2009 8:52 AM

Immature Red-tailed doesn't have a red tail ;-)

Swainson's has - according to Sibley - a white face, except in dark-phase birds, and a dark-phase wouldn't have such a pale belly.

Resin

I noticed the lack of the white face, but then neither do immature Swainson's have a white-face. One of the two for sure.

With my field guide I would need one more piece of evidence to call it an adult Swainson's, and that's the bird looking this way.

that's a good shot but it's kinda far away. can't quite make out what it is exactly. next time hit the zoom button.

Brian

http://www.mybinocularharness.com

Are you sure it isn't an immature Red-Tail?

Ah, this is a Swainson's Hawk based on three characteristics. The first one is subtle, if you look at the photo closely, you can see the white throat patch which characterizes a Swainson's. Then next two id thoughts are mostly consistent for both species of raptors given that both have a light phase and dark phase (and everything in between). Red-tailed's have a mottled belly band, which this bird does not. Second, Red-tailed's have a mottled back and upper surface of the wing. This bird is all brown with no mottling which is consistent with a Swainson's.

If a light phase bird is a "1" and a dark phase bird is a "10", I would rank this bird as a "4" leaning a little to the light-phase side.

I have attached a photo of a bird I photographed this summer in Montana north of Billings. It too is an intermediate phase, but I would give it "5 - 6".

Thanks!

I seen the white on the throat but could not see how much was there, but all other features pointed to Swainson's.

Humm, I zoomed and zoomed and still can't see a hint of white on the throat of SWOYEJ01's bird.

Hack