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Posted by Toe on 17:57:28 04/01/12
In Reply to: Re: Lucky Hammock Hawk ID posted by Brian Rapoza
There's no denying the size. There were plenty of Vultures at all altitudes and this bird was larger that the 1,000's of Short-tailed I've seen. Besides the size, which rules out Short-tailed, there's the wings. Short-taileds have a clear black band on the trailing edge of the wing, which my bird didn't have. Short-taileds have a much more rounded wing, and they hold the wing tips up when gliding. Short-tailed have a short 1st primary wingtip, and a 2nd primary tip that is also short. My bird had a short 1st primary wingtip, but the 2nd primary goes out almost to the same lenght as 3, 4 and 5. This is what gives the wing the distinct shape that makes them look at first like a Vulture. Like I said, when I firs saw this bird gliding along a mountain, right where you'd expect Zone-tailed, I almost dismissed it as a Vulture. There's no way anyone could every confuse a Short-tailed for a Vulture, well, expect maybe Vince in Collier County.
The poor quality of the photo, no other photos to compare it with, and the fact that no one else saw the bird there like I did does make it tough to ID this one. An adult would be a clincher. But, it anyone wants to have some fun, look at photos of juvenile Zone-taileds and dark-morph Short-taileds to compare with my bird to see the points I make.
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