[Tweeters] Mystery Hawk

[Steve Loitz]

Carol,

IMO, it was likely a dark morph Red-tailed Hawk. RTHAs have a very broad
range of plumage, moreso among all of our raptors. WA does get a few
wintering dark morph Rough-tailed Hawks -- Sibley's estimates 10% of
Roughies W of the plains, although I would guess is closer to 1-in-20 (5%)
in WA -- and dark morph RTHAs are even more rare W of the Cascades. Also, a
dark morph Roughie would not have a visible belly band.

If you want to go down the rabbit hole of plumage variation in RTHAs,
consider joining this Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/856794547783261

BTW, I am a former West Seattle resident. We moved to Eburg eight years
ago. We love it over here, although I do miss my routine birding walks in
West Seattle.

Happy birding,

Steve Loitz
Ellensburg

On Thu, Feb 22, 2024 at 7:22 PM Tom and Carol Stoner <tcstonefam at gmail.com>
wrote:


> I am not good with hawks beyond the common ones in our area.  My default

> is Red-tailed unless I have clear field marks that suggest otherwise.

> North of Marysville on I-5 today I got a glimpse of a dark hawk with a deep

> rust breast and a dark brown-black belly band and wings.  I didn't see any

> light colors in my brief glimpse.  Do Red-tails come in that kind of

> plumage?  The picture in Sibley that most resembled the bird I saw was a

> Ferruginous Hawk, but that seems *highly *unlikely.

>

> Any thoughts?

>

> Carol Stoner

> West Seattle

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-- 
Steve Loitz
Ellensburg, WA
steveloitz at gmail.com
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