I saw this hawk on Saturday, perched on the airport perimeter fence near Templeton station. I assumed it was a red-tailed hawk, but the consistently dark colouration is putting me off. I didn't see the bird fly as I didn't want to disturb it. Any suggestions?

Based on my field guide it "might" be a juvenile red-tailed hawk dark morph. The tail markings seem to fit...but that is just a guess. Very interesting shot.

R

it's the Harlan's that had me fooled last year, nice grab

Ahhh...I had thought that maybe it was a Harlans but didn't see any white speckles on the front breast or wings. Interesting...

Thank you for your replies, revs and surreybird It does indeed seem to be the same (or very similar to) the brid seen by revs (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3612&hilit=harlan%27s) and Michelle Lamberson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/vitrain/32 ... otostream/) last year. I understand that there can be huge variations in colouration among red-tailed hawks, including harlan's. Colour aside, what are the key distinguishing features between a "normal" dark morph red-tailed and a Harlan's dark morph red-tailed?

I honestly don't think this is a typical Harlan's Hawk. I wouldn't want to make a final call on it from photos, but it really does not look like a Harlan's. I think it's probably an intergrade.

Thanks Guy. I've been reading through all of the comments about the birds that are similar to mine and there does seem to be a lot of uncertainty. I will have a look at my other photographs to see if I can get a better idea of wing length. For now I will chalk this one down as a dark-morph red-tailed hawk that may or may not have some harlan's in its genes. Whatever it is, it was a nice bird to see, on a raptor-rich weekend. I got some good looks of a short-eared owl at Iona, along with a couple of northern harriers and a Cooper's hawk. On Sunday, I finally got to see one of the gyrfalcons down in Delta.

This hawk has sparked debate for a few years. I've seen it around Iona for atleast 4 years, so that rules out Juvenile.

interesting)