{"id":9580,"date":"2014-01-20T07:20:33","date_gmt":"2014-01-20T15:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=9580"},"modified":"2014-01-20T07:20:33","modified_gmt":"2014-01-20T15:20:33","slug":"buteo-id","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=9580","title":{"rendered":"Buteo ID"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>How difficult can it be to identify a couple of local buteos?<\/p>\n<p>Buteos are the broad-winged hawks that hunt in open spaces.\u00a0There are only two likely to be seen locally at this time of year: Red-tailed Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk. (Well, there may be other accidental visitors, but don&#8217;t count on them.)\u00a0The Red-tailed Hawk is named (not surprisingly) for its red tail. The Rough-legged Hawk for the fact that its legs are feathered down to its toes.<\/p>\n<p>The problem arises because each of these hawks has a range of plumages, i.e., morphs. Further, the Red-tailed Hawk has a sub-species, Harlan&#8217;s Hawk, that some think should qualify as an entirely different species. Well, that is my excuse for not being able to sort out some casual observations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the numbered pictures, below, I offer guesses, not assurances. Suggestions are welcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>1) First, an easy one: a Red-tailed Hawk on a fence post.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9585\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/redtailedhawk140115as.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>2) Then, a Red-tailed Hawk hunting in a field.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9583\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/redtailedhawk140115bs.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>3) Here are two views of the same Rough-legged Hawk.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9582\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/roughleggedhawk140115as.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>4) And a Rough-legged Hawk in flight.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9584\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ruffedleggedhawk140115as.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>5) This bird is unclear, but it might be a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk. Suggestions?<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9581\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/hawk140115cs.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>6) Finally, the ultimate problem hawk. I speculate that it is a juvenile light-morph Harlan&#8217;s Hawk.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9586\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/hawk140115as.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; How difficult can it be to identify a couple of local buteos? Buteos are the broad-winged hawks that hunt in open spaces.\u00a0There are only two likely to be seen locally at this time of year: Red-tailed Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=9580\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9580"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9595,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9580\/revisions\/9595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}