Unusual raptor follow-up
Thank you all for your direct replies, postings and blog comments regarding the "unusual raptor" seen in Queens last week. A majority of responses had very convincing arguments for immature Red-shouldered Hawk. A search of the Internet turned up several images of very similar looking individuals. Here is the latest comment with some useful diagnostics.
Rob:
It's an [immature] Red-shouldered Hawk.
First let's eliminate ALL falcons! All falcons have a perfectly round nostril opening: both your images show quite an elongated oval shape for this fleshy part. Therefore it's not a falcon of any species in the world. [Look at some close-up falcon photos online and you'll see this.]
Just about every buteo species, light morphs, have a malar mark [moustache]. This is not a falcon tell.
Your bird is lightly spotted below the bib and has long legs. A Broadwing would have blotchy spotting on the flanks and lower belly; often chunky and short-legged. A bird this lightly marked, if it were a Broadwing, would have a clear, unstreaked area on the upper breast, in between a heavier pair of malar marks!
Thanks for posting the images... just can't get enough hawk photos.
Thomas L. Carrolan
Just to follow up, my wife, Heidi, saw the bird in flight at close range with several others before Rob and I arrived. She later described the bird as large with the underside of wings pale edged in black. None of the observers present, including Heidi, gave Broad-wing consideration. The confusion among those present was between buteo and accipiter - a classic problem with Red-shouldered. We settled on Accipiter with Rob being the one hold out. (A day or two later, when we were looking at the Sibley Guide, Heidi became convinced it was a Red-shouldered.)
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