Harlan's?

[smittyone@cox.net]

Is this a light morph or intermediate morph Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk?  It was seen this afternoon in NW Missouri.

Edited December 10, 2020 by smittyone@cox.net
Fixed typo

[Melierax]

Looks good to me - very dark coloration, white speckling concentrated in breast, light streaks across the face. There may be other field marks that are more reliable though.

[Jerry Friedman]

I believe the lack of brown and buff is good for Harlan's too.

[Candydez12]

11 hours ago, smittyone@cox.net said:

Is this a light morph or intermediate morph Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk?  It was seen this afternoon in NW Missouri.

Looks like a Red - tailed Hawk to me.

[Avery]

2 minutes ago, Candydez12 said:

Looks like a Red - tailed Hawk to me.

We know it's a Red-tailed, but the OP is asking whether it is the Harlan's subspecies. I have made the mistake before of not thoroughly reading the OP's post, and then answering a question that was not asked. It seems like the question in this post has been answered.

Edited December 10, 2020 by Avery

[Tony Leukering]

The black of the subterminal dark tail band extends down the shaft to the tip = Harlan's

[smittyone@cox.net]

Actually the question wasn't whether it was a Harlan's ssp of Red-tailed Hawk.  But if it was a light morph or an intermediate morph Harlan's.  I probably should have phrased the question better.

[Jerry Friedman]

Oh, sorry.  I wouldn't call it a light-morph Harlan's--as far as I know, they're mostly white underneath, like Eastern juveniles.  The lightest can be hard to tell from Krider's.

Juvenile dark-morph Harlan's can have white markings, like 

 

(That's from here.)  I don't know where the line between intermediate and dark is, and I'm not sure deciding is worthwhile.  But some people know a lot more about these birds than I do.