Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk
We had a serendipitous encounter with this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk while out exploring in Essex County, Massachusetts yesterday. I owe Patti a big thank you for kicking me out of the car to get the photograph.
Fun facts and things to know… Red-tailed Hawks do not develop their eponymous cinnamon-red tails until they fully develop their adult plumage when about a year old. Juveniles, as seen here, have thin brown banding on their tails. But they do have other key identification characteristics, two of which we can clearly see here. First, the dark “belly band” with clean upper breast is usually the most noticeable clue in the field. The belly band is the first thing I always look for when making an identification.
But the dark bands on the leading edge of the wings also serve as an identification clue; these are known as “patagial bars”, as they are on the “patagium” (the stretch of skin on the leading edge of a bird's wing extending from the head to the wrist). This is often less noticeable in the field, but we have a good look at them in this flight photograph.
Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk
We had a serendipitous encounter with this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk while out exploring in Essex County, Massachusetts yesterday. I owe Patti a big thank you for kicking me out of the car to get the photograph.
Fun facts and things to know… Red-tailed Hawks do not develop their eponymous cinnamon-red tails until they fully develop their adult plumage when about a year old. Juveniles, as seen here, have thin brown banding on their tails. But they do have other key identification characteristics, two of which we can clearly see here. First, the dark “belly band” with clean upper breast is usually the most noticeable clue in the field. The belly band is the first thing I always look for when making an identification.
But the dark bands on the leading edge of the wings also serve as an identification clue; these are known as “patagial bars”, as they are on the “patagium” (the stretch of skin on the leading edge of a bird's wing extending from the head to the wrist). This is often less noticeable in the field, but we have a good look at them in this flight photograph.