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Project Noah Nature School
Buteo jamaicensis
What I believe to be an adult Red-tailed Hawk with some form of albino coloring or mutation in the area of the head
Found near a cemetery in the Clitherall, Minnesota area on highway 210 heading east out of Battle lake on the right-hand side of the highway.
I would see this hawk occasionally on our way to photograph a family of Osprey living a few miles away throughout the summer in 2011. I looked for it again this past summer but never saw it.
Spotted on Jul 19, 2011
Submitted on Apr 15, 2012
10 Comments
Kim-I will see if I can locate the other images (not as nice) I took of this fellow. Perhaps the other views or angles will help to know for sure. I read the link and it appears there are some disagreements as to whether they're a separate species or not...?
I think this is a light-morph Harlan's Hawk. Look at the tail. It has subtle dark markings on it, a feature of Harlan's, also if there are some spots on the underparts it is Harlan's. Krider's Hawk's are also light but do not have spots on the underparts, also have the base of the tail white and no barring.
http://www.dyesscreek.com/miscellaneous_...
ChristyHolland-No. No closeups of this one, just the closeups I got of the female (normal) Red-tailed Hawk in my parent's back yard one winter. I still haven't located them but they are on my list of images to locate and post/share. This is the one and only decent shot I got of this partial albino. I took a couple others (using a 70-300mm lens) but not as nice. I haven't seen her this summer and my 70-300 mm lens broke so I'm down to using an 18-55mm and a 55-200mm lens now so if I do, the images won't be as close unless I got really, really lucky. Thank you!
EmilyMarino-Unfortunately I haven't seen her this year. If I do, I'll do my best to get more images of her. Thank you!! My parents had a female and male Red-tailed Hawk in their back yard most of the winter one year. The female was so blase about humans, you could walk right under her (perched on a branch) or within 12 feet of her eating (Mallards) on the ground. I got great pictures of her as a result but they're somewhere in one of my three external hard drives or I may have burned them to a disk and they're in a moving box out in the garage...She was a normal Red-tailed Hawk though not a partial albino like this one.
I thought his eyes made him look kite-like too! But there is no denying that red tail! His leucistic characteristics must make his eyes appear larger than they are! PLEASE, PLEASE post more pictures of him!!! This is a gorgeous bird!
Do you have close-ups of this hawk? That would be great! I've got lots of personal Red-Tail photos that I can't upload yet because they're birds where I volunteer and I need to ask our director about it...but you are welcome to e-mail me and I'll send you a couple close-ups...he's cute, whatever he is! You can also ask in the chatroom below - usually someone is there who can help.
ChristyHolland-Thank you!! Some Audubon folks told me they thought it was a Red-tail with some leucism or leukism traits. Once I locate my Red-tailed Hawk closeup images (in one of my external hard drives) I'll upload them for comparison, okay?
harsuame-Thank you!
He's beautiful!! He doesn't look like a Red-Tail...but I think he's a type of kite with those gorgeous eyes!! Although I'm on a roll getting things wrong these days, so... (here is a leucistic Red-Tailed Hawk a friend took pics of here locally... thought you'd be interested!) http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/981...
Preciosa ave excelente!!