The juveniles leave their nest after 5 or 6 weeks, although they remain dependent on their parents for many weeks while learning to hunt for a wide variety of small animals. These birds develop their adult plumage after about a year and a half, so you could see juvenile Red-shouldered Hawks at any time of year. The underside is most heavily spotted around the throat and chest, becoming uniform whitish under the tail. Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawks in their first plumage are brown above and pale whitish below. Juvenile plumage birds look quite different from their parents, so how do you identify a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk? They are resident and partial migrants across much of the eastern half of the United States, with a second isolated population that is limited to the West Coast from Baja California to Oregon. The Red-shouldered Hawk ( Buteo lineatus) is a beautiful American hawk of forests and woodland habitats, usually near water. Fifth image ISO 800, f6.3 1/2000.Which other hawks look similar to the juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk? Images made with a Canon 5Div, 100-400mm ISII zoom lens, aperture priority setting. The buteos remaining in our area will be overwhelmingly Red Tails, with a few Ferruginous Hawks thrown into the mix. The last birds will be passing through our area in the next week or two. We’re seeing the winding down of the Swainson’s Hawk migration. One more factor that helps identify this bird: Swainson’s Hawks are much fonder of perching on the ground than are Red Tails. It also has the more svelte physique of a Swainson’s Hawk and its very long wings are evident. The yellow base of its beak and its bright yellow legs give this bird away. It took me a half-minute of studying the bird before I was positive that it was a Red Tail.įinally, Hawk # 5 is a very obvious Swainson’s Hawk. On first impression I thought that it was a juvenile Swainson’s Hawk. All of this said, I got this bird wrong when I first saw it. Also, juvenile Red-tailed Hawks tend to have very pale eyes as this bird has, a feature that is largely absent with juvenile Swainson’s Hawks. However, it has a physique that is typical of a Red-tailed Hawk and the base of its beak is pale. Its plumage is not at all characteristic of adult Red Tails, and it lacks a red tail (remember: juvenile Red-tailed Hawks don’t have red tails). Hawk # 4 is a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk and I’d say that this bird is the hardest to identify at first glance. To my eye, the bird is somewhat more gracefully built than are the Red Tails, but that is subjective. The bright yellow base of its beak and its yellow legs are the tell here. But, note: this bird has a very obvious red tail. Its plumage varies considerably from that of Hawk # 1, but that’s not unusual with these hawks (Swainson’s Hawks have tremendously varied plumage as well). This bird also has a blocky physique that says “Red Tail.” Note that the base of its beak is a very pale yellow. Hawk # 1 has the classic “southwestern” Red Tail plumage. If you guessed that the third and fifth bird are Swainson’s Hawks, you are correct! The other three are Red Tails. I still make occasional mistakes, however. It gets easier to tell the species apart when you’ve had substantial practice identifying these birds in the field. Now, these distinctions are pretty subtle. On a perching Swainson’s Hawk the tips of its wings reach or pass the end of the bird’s tail whereas a Red-tailed Hawk’s wings don’t extend quite so far. Red Tails tend to have a somewhat more robust build than do Swainson’s Hawks and Swainson’s Hawks have longer wings in proportion to their bodies than do Red Tails. Swainson’s Hawks also tend to have yellower legs than those of Red-tailed Hawks. Red Tails, by contrast, generally have paler skin at the bases of their beaks and in some instances that skin isn’t yellow at all. Swainson’s Hawks nearly always have a bright yellow base to their beaks (the part closest to their heads). That feature is absent with juvenile birds, but if a hawk has a red tail then you may rest assured that it is a Red-tailed Hawk. The vast majority of adult Red-tailed Hawks have red tails. Two of these birds are Swainson’s Hawks, three are Red-tailed Hawks. Today, I’m presenting five images of hawks. You may enlarge any image in this blog by clicking on it.
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