Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Unnamed spotting

Notes:

Seen at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Washington State, where the most common hawks are the Red-tailed Hawk and Northern Harrier. Less common are the Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Northern Goshawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, and Rough-legged Hawk.

1 Species ID Suggestions

Josh Asel
Josh Asel 9 years ago
Adult Light Morph Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk
Buteo jamaicensis


Sign in to suggest organism ID

6 Comments

Thanks to all for the ID suggestions and Happy holidays!

Josh Asel
Josh Asel 9 years ago

Great spotting, really hard to find.

Josh Asel
Josh Asel 9 years ago

I am quite certain this is a Adult Light Morph Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk. The lack of rufous wash, little to no belly band, especially dark patagial markings, the apparent scapular V on the backside, classic red-tailed hawk perch posture, wing tips do not reach tail tip, and whitish with narrow dark bands and having also juvenile and adult feathers, all point to this sub species of RTHA.

AshleyT
AshleyT 9 years ago

Definitely a redtail. Don't know what happened to my comment earlier saying why, so I'll say it again. A rough legged of any age has a white tail with a dark band on the end, this bird does not have that. They also have limited white markings on the back, and this bird you can see half of the scapular v that is a giveaway for a redtail.

JoshuaGSmith
JoshuaGSmith 9 years ago

It's either an immature or female. The stripe behind the eye and the breast pattern supports this species.

JoshuaGSmith
JoshuaGSmith 9 years ago

It looks a lot like a Rough-legged Hawk or an Osprey.

Washington, USA

Spotted on Dec 14, 2014
Submitted on Dec 24, 2014

Nearby Spottings

Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk House Finch Osprey American Coot, Juvenile
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team