Red-tailed Hawk

Description:

According to my reference on this large hawk the light phase of this species has a white breast with dark markings and rust colored tail. It further states that it may be a young bird if it lacks the rust color on it's tail. This individual does have visible rust color on the tip of it's tail. This is the first light phase individual I've seen in this area. The dark phase is much more common.

Habitat:

Forests and open country

Notes:

Thanks to those Project Noah members who commented on the bird in the initial posting of these pictures. With their suggestions in mind, and further research on my part, I learned about this type of color variation and the bird identification was corrected. Thanks again for the help.