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I am hoping someone can help me to identify this beautiful bird. I live in the Hudson Valley (NY) and often see many red-tail hawks, but this bird is completely different. It is very noisy (and sounds almost like a seagull) and soars very high, coming down very occasionally. I first thought it may be a juvenile bald eagle which are coming back in our area, but once I was able to get this photo, the head looked more like a hawk to me. Any help would be appreciated!

Hey xenazoe and welcome to the forum! :hello:

I am, admittedly, not overly familiar with hawks but I think your photo is of either an Immature Northern Goshawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk

Immature Northern Goshawk...



Sharp-shinned Hawk...



Maybe someone with more expertise in Hawks will follow later and let you know for sure, but those 2 are my best guess.

Hello xenazoe,

To my eye, your bird actually does look like a RT - although some of the species can look kind of similar when you look at them in flight, the accipiters like the sharp-shinned and goshawk have a different proportion of wings and tail than your bird. Accipiters in particular have shorter narrower wings and longer tails in proportion to the body. Your bird if you look closely at the proportions has pretty broad wide wings and the tail isn't quite so long compared to the body. That makes it look more like a buteo hawk to me. You can see a bit of the reddish tinge actualy on the edge of the tail shining through.

But the biggest thing that says RT is the light colored throat and breast with the band of brown streaks across the lower breast. That belly band is the classic plumage of the eastern RT.

4 beautiful hawks saved by some quick action!! Yet another case against rodenticides!!


http://www.wildcarebayarea.org/site/Pag ... eeklyEmail


~~ Picture is property of and courtesy of Alison Hermance

Chile investigate deaths of 'poisoned' Condors ~~ TWENTY poisoned and 2 have died!!


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ndors.html

I certainly hope that this doesn't come to pass! So many have worked so hard to bring this majestic bird back from the brink of extinction!! ~~~


http://www.care2.com/causes/extinction- ... llets.html


Please excuse all the extra "stuff" at the bottom of the article--sign the petition if you wish.

Yet another story from Audubon Magazine concerning California Condors and LEAD!!! ~~~


http://www.audubonmagazine.org/articles ... ?page=show

An interesting and thoughtful article about LEAD from David Yarnold, President of the National Audubon Society ~~~


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-yar ... 62411.html