You are here:

Birding/birds of prey identity

Advertisement

Expert: Roger Lederer - 6/16/2009


Question

Hi-perchers
Hello again Roger;
  We have many bird visitors. We are basically familiar with most of them,but needless to say not all. We have  some very tall (50+ ft)trees upon which perch various  birds of prey.We've become familiar with the owls, the osprey, 'chicken hawk', but we don't know  these 3. Since their visits are daily and / or frequent I'd like to do a reading on them.
The  pair(?) almost always travels together, seldom do we see one without the other.I am really fascinated  by these two- is the difference in color a matter of  sex /maturity, or something other ?  

Answer
You don't tell me where you live, which is necessary for me to confirm the identification, but these look like immature Red-shouldered Hawks to me. There is a lot of variation in (most)hawks' coloration depending on the part of the country and immatures add another level of variation.

Roger Lederer

Expertise

Any and all about WILD birds - the science of ornithology. Information about birdwatching, ecology, conservation, migration, behavior, banding, rehabilitation, feeding, songs, binoculars, identification, and careers in ornithology. No questions about pet or caged birds, please.

Experience

Have a PhD and over forty years as a professional ornithologist - research, teaching, author, speaker, webmaster of Ornithology.com . Have written thirty scientific papers, three bird field guides, a textbook in ecology and two recent books entitled "Amazing Birds" and "Birds of New England". Have traveled to over 90 countries watching birds.

Education/Credentials
PhD in Zoology/Ornithology; Emeritus Professor of Biological Sciences; former Dean of the College of Natural Sciences at California State University, Chico

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.