smittyone@cox.net Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 Seen yesterday in NE Missouri. I'm about 90% certain this is an immature Harlan's RTHA. There are also dark morph Rough-legged Hawks at this location, and I often confuse the two. When perched, it's difficult to tell if the legs are feather covered, or just "hidden" by feathers, if that makes sense. It's breast also doesn't seem as speckled as I'd expect on a Harlan's. But, I think the tail banding is the clincher in this case. Unfortunately, I only have perched shots. Interestingly, I found it's behavior unusual, in that it wasn't at all skittish as most buteos I've encountered. I watched it preen for at least 5 minutes at relatively close range. I've never watched a buteo preen before. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avery Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 Harlan’s would be my guess 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birds are cool Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 Agreed, Harlan's. Nice pic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry Friedman Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 Yes, the tail has "Harlan's" written all over it, as that excellent second shot shows. It's like the one in the photo by Kara Donoghue at https://hawkwatch.org/blog/item/742-juvenile-harlan-s-tails. Also, you can actually see that the tarsi are bare. And dark-morph Harlan's can be solid black underneath, without any mottling. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smittyone@cox.net Posted January 15 Author Share Posted January 15 Sorry to beat a dead horse again but... This immature Harlan's RTHA would be considered a dark-morph correct? Most of the very dark Harlan's I've seen, I've just called Harlan's without distinguishing the morph. However, the other Harlan's color morphs I do distinguish, that is when someone smarter than me points that out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry Friedman Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Yes, juvenile dark-morph Harlan's. (Technically, "juvenile" means the first plumage with real feathers, not down, which this is. "Immature" means later plumages that aren't full adult plumage, as in Bald Eagles. If I remember correctly, Red-tails don't have immature plumages that can identified in the field or at all.) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinHood Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 13 hours ago, Jerry Friedman said: Technically, "juvenile" means the first plumage with real feathers, not down, which this is. "Immature" means later plumages that aren't full adult plumage, as in Bald Eagles. Minor correction to this statement, which I remember from the Tony Leukering days - immature is a broad description which refers to all non adult plumages including juvenile. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smittyone@cox.net Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 So I can technically continue reporting other birds (beside Bald Eagles) that have not reached adulthood, as immature, without having to determine if they're juveniles or not? Because that would save me A LOT of caption re-editing. Let's not even start with "first winter" birds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry Friedman Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 (edited) 3 hours ago, RobinHood said: Minor correction to this statement, which I remember from the Tony Leukering days - immature is a broad description which refers to all non adult plumages including juvenile. I don't believe so. Here he said, "Juvenile, not immature, Red-taileds" https://forums.whatbird.com/index.php?/topic/14260-immature-red-tailed-hawk/ Unfortunately the article he linked to doesn't seem to be accessible. Edited January 16 by Jerry Friedman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinHood Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 26 minutes ago, Jerry Friedman said: I don't believe so. Here he said, "Juvenile, not immature, Red-taileds" https://forums.whatbird.com/index.php?/topic/14260-immature-red-tailed-hawk/ Unfortunately the article he linked to doesn't seem to be accessible. Good find. I'm sure I've checked the definitions lots of times and was fairly sure immature includes juvenile but happy to be corrected. I wonder if in this case Tony was just being more precise about the age. I also vaguely remember Tony saying that as soon as one feather of juvenile plumage is replaced it is no longer a juvenile (or did I get that wrong too). Most of the technical papers are pdfs, but this non pdf one has a summary at the end of terms: http://www.birdfellow.com/journal/2013/07/30/a_juvenile_is_an_immature_but Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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