Many many thanks to all of you who replied to my hawk ID query.
I received a very large number of responses, only some of which appear to have gone out to the entire lists, unfortunately.
What I discovered was that a number of other people have seen individuals like this in our area, not too far from where I saw this bird (in Croton, NY). Some have also been somewhat stumped at first, but concluded that it was an immature Red-shouldered.
It is clear that the differential ID between immature Red-shouldered (RSHA) and immature Broad-winged hawks (BWHA) is notoriously challenging.
The main arguments I have seen in favor of immature Red-shouldered include the following.
Time of year and location - that it is too early for a BWHA to be seen this far north; most of them overwinter in Central and South America, or, as Phil Jeffrey mentioned, in Florida or the Mississippi River Delta south of New Orleans, and would more likely not be here until late March or early to mid- April. In addition, BWHA would not do well in this harsh winter. Furthermore, some RSHA immatures are known to overwinter in our area.
Then, there is wing marking and shape - RSHA characteristically have the translucent crescents at the base of the primaries just before the darker tips and have rounder and broader wings than BWHA, which are thought of as straighter and more pointy. Some described the BWHA as having a larger and more square light area near the wing tips.
Line under chin - thought of as thicker on RSHA than on BWHA, and streaks on chest are distributed more evenly across on RSHA and darker at the sides on BWHA - although that is not always a constant.
The overwhelming conclusion is that this bird is an immature Red-shouldered Hawk.
Thank you again, Ardith Bondi -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
