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Posted by Robin Diaz on 15:12:04 12/17/06
Yesterday the Virginia Key sub-party of the Miami CBC came across a perched black hawk in the distance. The bird appeared Black Vulture-size and I wonder if the dark gray sky helped create this effect. After seeing the "urubitinga" Great Black-Hawk recently, I felt that this was certainly the bird. We could not maneuver to see the basal area of the tail and although it did seem too long, I ignored this small alarm bell and got caught up in the moment.
John Boyd is credited with the "save." After he used Photo Shop to control highlights and shadows, the faint barring on wings became evident, as did those on the tail. The lack of yellow lores rules out "urubitinga" race of Great Black-Hawk; the one seen on Virginia Key/Key Biscayne for the past 5 years. I did see this on the perched bird in 2003. Du-uh!
Perched dark morph Short-tailed Hawk is an excellent bird but almost........
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