A second Zone-tailed Hawk, an adult--for sure


I found this Zone-tailed Hawk this afternoon perched in a tree on Frontera Audubon Center's property. As soon as I spotted it I knew it was a Zone-tailed Hawk-it had the jizz.
When I got my binoculars on it I could see it has a blackish head and body, a black bill with bright yellow cere, yellow feet, and white lores (white forehead was not visible in the field or in my photos). Also as characteristic of Zone-tails, this perched bird shows it's long wings extend past the tail (easily seen in bottom pic).

Though I erroneously identified the juvenile Zone-tailed seen in the afternoon on Dec. 26 as an adult, this one is definitely an adult: it has white bands on the ventral (underside) of it's tail. So there are two Zone-tailed Hawks at Frontera Audubon, this adult and the juvenile that I posted about earlier (note: photos can be enlarged for even closer viewing by double clicking on them) SeEtta

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