Posted by John Boyd on December 19, 2002 at 16:34:37:
This afternoon I was walking on SW 157th Ave, near 112th St, when I looked up and saw a dark-morph buteo. Well, my first thought was Short-tailed Hawk...but the bird didn't hold itself like a short-tailed. Fortunately, it was coming closer (eventually directly overhead). As it did, I could that it definitely was not a Short-tailed. Moreover, it did not have the long wings of a Swainson's Hawk. The closer it got, the more it looked like a Red-tailed Hawk...and that's what it turned out to be. I consulted the Wheeler/Clark & Clark/Wheeler books when I got home. These dark-form Red-tailed's form a continuum, but this one was pretty close to the pure dark-morph. The patagial marks were not visible