Bird Board
Need help identifying this type of hawk
Posted by Justin Cheah
almost 8 years ago
9 Comments
Took advantage of the nice weather and birded Tree Tops Park this weekend. A ruby throated hummingbird caught my eye, and shortly thereafter I saw my first yellow billed cuckoo. I want to get a better vantage point and suddenly this large dark hawk dove in to catch the cuckoo but missed and circled around. It was dark all over except the bottoms of the wings and part of the tail were white and brown, the bill was yellow. Before I could get more shots some horse riders scared him off.
![A>](<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=21jbqms" target="_blank"><img src="http://i64.tinypic.com/21jbqms.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>)
Comments
Pic is not popping up for me, trying again
[IMG]http://i63.tinypic.com/nqodnl.jpg[/IMG]
That would be a dark phase shorttailed hawk. Nice pic
That is a rare photo of a perched dark morph Short-tailed Hawk! There are approximately 200 pairs in Florida, an occasional bird can show up in Arizona and sometimes in south Texas. Nice photo!
Thank you so much Kurt and Larry!!! I have a few more pictures I took, if anyone is interested you can email me at jcheah2003@yahoo.com
Can't be that rare, Larry, if even an avian- illiterate like me can get photos of these perched raptors :)
http://www.tropicalaudubon.org/blog/bird-board/short-tailed-hawk-at-lunchtime-with-lunch
this was at tree tops park.. i have to make a trip out there.
It is a lucky day when you get to see a perched Short-tailed Hawk. I have seen several, but that is after many, many years of birding. I knew a very active birder who was out just about ever day, he never saw a perched Short-tailed Hawk. He lived in south Florida for over 15-years and just never got lucky enough to see one perched.
I once had 4 dark Short-tailed Hawks perched next to each other in the main hammock at Kendall Indian Hammocks a few years ago on a rainy and overcast day. What a sight. I remember wishing I was with someone that had a camera. Aside from that I can only think of some 4 times in the many years of birding where I have seen them perched. Also once saw a light Short-tailed Hawk eating a Ring-billed Gull at the main hammock of Kendall Indian Hammocks.
The most I have seen is two light morphs perched together in Pinecrest, I have photos of those.
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