www.thefilemyrs.com > Birding > Audubon Research 2008 > Perched Raptor > Responses
Interesting Perched Raptor (Juvenile Broad-winged Hawk)
After posting on ID-Frontiers
the following response were received.
Thanks to everyone for their interest and comments!
From Rex Rowan
Gainesville, FL
Doesn't look anything
like an immature Red-shouldered to me. The
streaking concentrated at the sides of the breast - sort of like the
bird is drooling - looks right for Broad-winged. Red-shouldereds have
streaking all the way across the breast, without the whitish center
shown on your bird.
From Sam Stuart
New York, NY
Looks like a Juv Broad-winged Hawk. Nice find, there are very few in the country in winter!
From Paul Conover
Lafayette, LA
I think it's a Broad-winged.
There have been a few wintering in Cameron Parish this year, where they're
normally very rare in winter. The party I birded the Sabine CBC with had 2
this winter, and I've heard reports from Cameron itself, and the Willow Island
area just east of the town. Because they're usually much less common than
they have been this winter, we scrutinized each. The lack of banding on the
secondaries was the field mark we concentrated on.
The individual you photographed looks similar to one that was present in the
pond area at Peveto in November or December.
Hope you had good birding there!
From David Fix
Arcata, CA (Humboldt Bay)
Living on the West Coast but well off any known flight line for their small autumn migration here, I am not familiar with young Broad-winged Hawks, but I think the question is, why is this not one? All I can say is that it isn't a w. elegans Red-shouldered. This bird's very strong and broad supercilium and the quite sparse streaking beneath would suggest a Broad-winged to me. In your description I see no mention of flight style. If the bird flew off NOT suggesting a big Cooper's Hawk, but simply a small Buteo, then it wasn't a Red-shouldered. I have to hazard that, most likely, the burden will be on those who argue that it's a 'Shoulder.
From David Muth
New Orleans
To my eye your bird has
the look of a classic juvenile Broad-winged Hawk. It is lightly streaked with
a prominent supercilium.
Ideally, one would like a look at the underwing pattern, or the shape of the
spread primaries, or the lack of barring in the secondaries, which are all
features hard to see in your photos. I await the testimony of experts, but
I suspect the narrow dark tailbands visible in some of the undertail shots
are enough to rule out Red-shouldered. In Red-shouldered, I think the dark
and light bands are roughly equal in width. While there is considerable variation
in juvenile Broad-winged, I don't think Red-shouldered ever shows the pale
bands as wide proportional to the dark bands as in your bird.
Late Broad-winged Hawks are not rare in coastal Cameron Parish into mid December
(the CBC period). These are assumed usually to be late migrants, still on
their way south via the Texas coastal bend. Coverage tends to fall off in
January, so evidence for later lingering is sparse. As it happens, however,
we are conducting Winter Bird Atlassing in Louisiana, and birds first reported
during coastal CBCs have continued to be seen. Two juvenile Broad-winged Hawks
were documented at West Jetty a few miles east of Peveto, and at least two
others have been reported east of there. So, it has been an unusual year for
the species in Cameron Parish (on the Texas border in extreme southwest Louisiana).
It should also be noted that the one place in Louisiana where Red-shouldered
Hawk is not a common permanent resident is on the extreme coast, as at Peveto.
Incidentally, in extreme southeast Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi
River, Broad-winged is nearly annual in winter. Because the delta is a peninsular
cul-de-sac, Broad-winged Hawks, like several other species of circum-gulf
migrants are presumably trapped there each winter because of unwillingness
to cross the upen gulf. Broad-winged Hawks have been found at 14 different
locations so far this winter by CBCers and atlassers, an unprecedented number.
From Greg Hanisek
Waterbury CT
I concur with the posted comments pro-Broad-winged. Also, since you saw the upper wing in flight, you should have seen the pale crescents if it were a Red-shouldered. I also find typical RS to be more uniformly streaked across the breast. The pattern on your bird, lightest in the center and heavier up into the malar, typical of BW.
From Tony Leukering
Brighton, CO
Myself looked at the pictures and the bird is decidedly a juvenile Broad-winged Hawk, which have unmarked throats (though often with a thin stripe down the middle). As far as I know, juvenile Red-shouldereds never have virtually unmarked throats. It's a very good quick-and-dirty way to separate the two.
From Tom Carrolan
Liverpool NY
Just a couple of quick points.
1. Tony Leukering is right
about the open/unstreaked central area of
the throat to upper breast. From the views you have this is key here.
You can make the ID using this. I did share an image of a 'heavily
marked' BW with Brian Wheeler last year that had streaking in the
central area though. But when it's absent it is great fieldmark,
because immie Shoulders always have some fairly uniform streaking
evenly radiating over that upper third to half from the throat and
upper breast... it sometimes gives an overall bib effect.
2. Ligouri is famous for
always making a point that any fieldmark you
think is definitive... isn't so. But he's also 'the man' in the field
in the presence of any hundred other experts you can assemble. Any
elite birder who has ever been in his vicinity at Cape May or
elsewhere will tell you that. So... read on in "Every Angle" for
the
key diffs, Lig states them.
3. BNA accounts are the
worst source of hawk ID info I can think of,
short of one of those 'Hawks of [insert state name here books]'. To
say that there are good shape and/or tail projection differences betw/
RS and BW is pretty poor advice! There are as many exceptions as
truths on this continuum... no matter the buteo... or accipiter
comparisons that you should avoid making a call based on this. BTW,
Broadwings are a highly variable species, believe it or not. This
makes the other BNA features you cite also uninformative.
4. Even though Jerry Liguori
is the best there has even been for hawk
ID [Pete Dunne would say it's so], the very best reference on this
subject is Brian Wheeler's "Raptors of [Eastern/Western] North
America", Princeton 2003. It huge and detailed and has hundreds of
color photos [probably 3 doz for BW and RS]. You didn't mention
referring to this one and it's the best.
From Arlene Koch
Northhampton, PA
Without reading what anyone else has said, just by the gizz and 30+ years of raptor counting I’d go with juvey BW. However, I can still be wrong. Nothing’s harder on raptor ID than one perched if it’s a species you don’t often see perched.
From Barbara Ribble
Austin, TX
If you should get a chance to see a copy of Birds ofTikal or Birds of Guatemala, by Land, which uses a lot of the same plates, there is a comparison page of immature Broad-winged, immature Red-shouldered, and immature Roadside Hawk you might enjoy.
From Howard Eskin
Bucks County, PA
.....my understanding of two very good field mark differences...the Red-shouldered has streaky throat and "tear-drop" shapes in the feathers of the breast streaks and the Broad-winged has a whitish throat and "heart" shapes in feathers of the breast streaks.