6 replies to this topic

[paulkienitz]

No picture. This guy flew pretty low over me in Napa CA, where I work. And it looked like a medium sized hawk, but not a type I can recognize offhand.

I saw its underside very distinctively, and the important features were, first, that both the body and the fleshy parts of the wings were nearly white, with no dark bands, but second, the wing feathers -- at least the secondaries and tertials -- were boldly striped. I did not notice any such stripeyness on the primaries or tailfeathers, but I'm not quite as clear in my mind about what I saw around the extremities as I am for the middle parts.

I've tried looking through sibley and various google images and have not found a match. Could it be some kind of transitional molt pattern?

The most commonly seen bird of that shape in those parts is a red-shouldered hawk; there's apparently a nest quite close to where I was standing.


[update] by googling "juvenile red-shouldered hawk", I did see a few images that might match what I saw... such as this one: http://virtua-galler...ldered Hawk.jpg

[creeker]

Sure sounds like a Red-shouldered Hawk to me. Wings look like a checkerboard. EDIT: Should have read it better, white undersides doesn't match.

[Liam]

Take a look at Krider's Hawk. They have stripey wings.

http://robmckayphoto...light-photo.jpg

[JimBob]

My first thought was a Osprey.

[paulkienitz]

We get plenty of ospreys around here, and I'm pretty sure that's not what it was. Too small, for starters.

[paulkienitz]

My best guess is still juvenile red-shoulder,w since I did see a couple of pictures of ones that were white in front.

[creeker]

Northern Harrier would be another possibility. I used to see a lot of them near Napa. Sometimes they look tricky from below.

http://www.google.co...:15,s:227,i:105