Re: What species of buteo is this?

"maryann kolb" <mkolb@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Josh Hayes <joshno@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Knack" <zymatiikNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Eastern Washington; 12 miles south of Spokane; 16 miles west of Idaho;
400' deep canyon about 1/3 mile wide with a creek at the bottom.
Just about every afternoon for the past 5 weeks I see 1-2 buteos that
looks much like this
http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?agencyID=7&curPageNum=8

Brown, short tail, head seems small when its broad wings are in
soaring position. Sometimes perches atop brush only 5-6' above ground.
Has a very conspicuous white patch on the back of its rump, just above
their brown tail feathers. That white patch is very distinctive
whenever I see one flapping a climb from low level in a direction of
travel directly away from me.

If you're sure this is a buteo, I have to wonder - gulp - if we're
talking red-tails here.

Northern Harrier

From this description, I'm not sure what it is, but let's sort some things
out - we might be able to figure it out with more info from Knack.

1) Tail length. The picture is of a Harris's Hawk, which actually
has a long tail for a buteo. Red-tailed's tails are sort of medium.
Harriers, however, have long, rather slim tails (and they aren't
buteos).

2) Wings. Both the Harris's and Red-taileds have classic buteo
wings - intermediate in length with bulging secondaries. The
Harrier, however, has long wings, again on the slim side. Also,
very importantly, the Harrier carries its wings in a dihedral (V-
shape) when hunting. It has a *very* distinctive hunting style,
crusing relatively low over the ground with its wings in the
V-shape. Buteos tend to soar, or hunt from a perch.

3) White patch at base of tail. This is a distinctive field mark
on Northern Harriers, and not on a Red-tailed, unless it
was a Harlan's or Krider's, in which case most of the tail
as well is a light color. Aside from this and the Harris's, there
is one buteo with the white patch at the base of the tail -
a light morph Rough-legged Hawk. However, they should
all be well north of Spokane at the moment.

So, given the above, what doesn't go together is the
short-tailed, broad-winged appearance with the distinctive
white patch at the tail base. Also, if they are Harriers, the
adult females and juvs could be described as brownish, but
not the adult males, which are gray above and very light
below, with darker wingtips.

Perhaps Knack can consider what (s)he has been seeing
in light of this and give us some more info.


--
Randy




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