Swainson's Hawk

[Mark]

This was this past Saturday, 20 Apr, about mid-morning at Lackland, AFB here in San Antonio. He was at a distance, so my camera pulled him in only so much. I was driving from one spot to the next when I spotted him just soaring around. I initially thought it was a red-tail until I got home and downloaded the pics. No not so sure. The coloration of the wings seem to match up with the pics I have seen of Swainson's, but not sure.

[kms15]

Looks like a Swainson's to me. The light chest and belly, with the dark banding on the ends of the primaries and secondaries, as well as the tail is Swainson's. Red tail, when two-toned like this is dark head, chest and belly, with a large white band across the primaries and secondaries (and a very thin dark band at the very tips of the feathers), red-tails don't have the dark band at the end of the tail feathers.

[Trevor L.]

I second Swainson’s