Looks like a juvenile Northern Harrier.....:dunno:

I photographed this hawk on Friday and posted these pix on the Sidney-Victoria Eagles+Wildlife Photos thread. Harry said it is one of the least seen, if ever seen, hawks in our area. If that is the case, then it certainly isn't a red-tailed because we see them quite often. I saw it near the Brentwood Bay eagle nest on Wallace Drive. Can anyone positively ID it for me

not sure it is a Hawk to be honest......hmmmmmmmmmmm Could this be a Golden eagle?

I took this picture when we were in Acapulco, Mexico, we believe these are Albatross.

soph: Here's a link to a site with lots of pix of the Red-tailed 'Harlan's Hawk.
Harlan's Hawk Harry said it is a dark morph red-tailed hawk and another fellow who compiles the Victoria Natural History Society's Annual Bird Count said the same (sometimes referred to as Harlan's hawk). I've posted some info on the Sidney-Victoria Eagles+Wildlife Photos thread.

Looks good to me sassyk....never heard of a Harlan's hawk but now I have......

Thanks Judy and Soph for this great thread

Yupper Kay that second pic from the bottom on that site is identical to your perched pic chest markings and all. The one I mean says Juvenile dark-morph Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk. Gee I learn something everyday on here, now if I could just retain it. I bet we'll see all kinds of great raptors here

I’ve started a file of species I’ve got pics of and of course here my favorite raptor is our Bald Eagles but here’s three others I’ve collected along the way. On top of these I’ve gotten red-tailed and rough-legged hawks also.

This first one is a Merlin



This wee cute guy is a Northern Shrike. He impales his meals for safe keeping, not as cute as he looks.



This last one is an American Kestrel that has been the bane of my existence. He’s very hard to catch and I’ve yet to get a good shot of him but I’m still trying.

In case this helps somebody down the road with ID’ing a Merlin, here’s a view showing the chest markings.