Red-shouldered Hawk Indeed: Gawk at this Hawk

Three days ago we had a post about one of the two Red-shouldered Hawks we caught this past week.  The second hawk, to us banding amateurs with little hand-hawk experience, looked odd especially compared to the first bird we caught (read first RSHA post).  It had features that reminded us easterners of Broad-winged Hawk.  Look at the photos here and see what we mean.  Turns out, after running it by the hawk banders at Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, the bird is definitely within the normal range of variation seen in the California Race of Red-shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus elegans.  Here are some photos taken by Dan Lipp of the overzealous Frenchie holding this beautiful SY RSHA.  

This photo shows the pale grayish brown eye that is typical of a young Red-shouldered Hawk.

An adult California Red-shouldered Hawk would show a nearly solid orange breast with an orange belly with white barring. The brownish barring on this SY RSHA is very reminiscent of a Broad-winged Hawk, and it has a much smaller, streaky bib than our previous SY RSHA. However, this RSHA's plumage is within the normal variation one could expect to see within the California subspecies.

Here you can see the tail with fewer, thicker bands than our first Red-shouldered Hawk, but the California subspecies immature can show a more adult-like tail than the eastern subspecies. 

By Luke Musher and Cory Ritter

More Like Boom Red-shouldered Hawka

Generally speaking, only birds up to a certain size will get caught in mist-nets meant for trapping passerines.  That size constraint is usually around the size of an American Robin, or the occasional male Sharp-shinned Hawk--as you have seen.  Birds that are any larger will usually not get tangled in the small-sized mesh of the mist-net, and are able to free themselves with a little struggle--or simply break through the net if large or strong enough.  So then, on Saturday, Dan and Cory were pleasantly surprised when they were on the closing net run and came upon this SY Red-shouldered Hawk in one of our nets. It was barely caught, so we were lucky that she didn't free herself before Dan and Cory were able to grab her. 

SY female Red-shouldered Hawk

Luke and the RSHA

Dan with the RSHA. They both look pretty confused.

Cory and the RSHA

After processing and banding the bird we did a quick search through PRBO's data and found that there have only been nine individual RSHA banded at Palomarin in the forty-six years of its existence, and only 12 captures total (i.e. some were recaptures of the same individual).  We are pretty lucky.  Even luckier was the fact that yesterday Dan and Frenchie caught another most likely second year RSHA, this time a male, at one of our offsites, Pine Gulch.  That makes two RSHA in three days (needless to say Cory and I were pretty jealous)!  To make matters more interesting, the bird has features that are quite similar to Broad-winged Hawk.  We are currently trying to confirm this bird's identity, and although we are leaning towards RSHA, it is certainly an interesting bird.  We will have more on this within the next few days.

By Cory Ritter and Luke Musher
Photos mostly by Dan Lipp