{"id":1715,"date":"2016-02-03T00:39:56","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T00:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/?p=1715"},"modified":"2016-02-03T00:49:06","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T00:49:06","slug":"note-on-northern-vs-eastern-red-tail-id","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/?p=1715","title":{"rendered":"Note on Northern vs. Eastern Red-tail ID"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I first contacted Jerry Liguori about starting up a site dedicated to the study of the mythical “abieticola<\/em>” Red-tailed Hawk (www.northernredtails.wordpress.com<\/a>), I had no idea that I was embarking on a journey that was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because many began to send messages\/emails\/comments along the lines of “thanks — a Red-tailed is no longer a Red-tailed anymore — I check every one!” and a curse because the field ID of subspecies is fraught <\/em>with challenges….most esp. the field ID of a putative subspecies along a cline riddled with a great deal of individual variation (further blurring the subspecific ‘lines’). Further to this apparent ‘curse’ are my own identification blunders. What I called an abieticola <\/em>Red-tailed in the winter of 2014 in some cases is not what I call an abieticola <\/em>now. Note: What I find most interesting about the development of my own skill-set as a birder is my increased caution in the field, esp. when faced with the need (or urge) to take identification one step further and make subspecific determinations. A few years ago, I would have thought the opposite to be true at this stage in the game!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"93275197-orquix0j\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 1<\/strong>: Above are two photos of Red-tailed Hawks. At left is a picture-perfect example of a lightly-marked Nothern (abieticola<\/em>) Red-tailed Hawk. The identifiers of note are: dark, auburn-coloured head with golden streaking throughout; golden brow; well-marked throat (variable); reddish bloom to the breast; thin streaking overlain; belly band composed of globular, blackish markings and interwoven with a herringbone pattern throughout. At right is a modestly-to-heavily marked Eastern (borealis<\/em>) Red-tailed Hawk. The identifiers of note are: brownish-blonde head with a constrastive <\/em>dark malar and brow; blondish eye arcs to posterior of eye; throat is well-marked in this example (variable); breast and chest lack the reddish bloom (variation to this trait); minimal streaking to the sides of the breast; belly band composed of globular, blackish markings with limited herringbone interweave.<\/p>\n

Good birding and happy Red-tailed Hawk watching \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I first contacted Jerry Liguori about starting up a site dedicated to the study of the mythical “abieticola” Red-tailed Hawk (www.northernredtails.wordpress.com), I had no idea that I was embarking on a journey that was both a blessing and a curse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1715"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1719,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions\/1719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}