Birds and Nature

When I looked more closely with my spotting scope at this Zone-tailed Hawk at El Zacatel, I could see it was in juvenal plumage. The bottom pic shows the tail up close so the dark irregular bands on the dorsal (upper) surface are visible. And on the far left of the tail feathers is one tail feather showing the ventral (lower) surface that whitish with dark black bands (only 2 visible). Note the 2 wingtips that are showing below the tail feathers, another feature of this species is their wings being very long. Also note the jaggedness of the tail feathers--I also saw this on the juvenile I followed as it perched and roosted at Frontera Audubon. I suspect this is the same juvenile bird because this location is less than 10 miles from Frontera, well within range for foraging for such raptors, and the ragged tail feathers would be consistent. The bottom pic (head is turned away from camera so viewing back of head) shows white on it's head, lots of white showing because the ...

Two days ago I drove by El Zacatel where a series of resacas provide excellent habitat for a good diversity of waterbirds, waterfowl and other species especially when there has been enough rain to fill them. Though some are dry now due to the drought there is still enough water to draw a lot of birds. Shortly after I arrived I spotted a hawk perched in a deciduous tree that looked very familiar--when I checked it with my binoculars I saw it was a Zone-tailed Hawk. Interestingly this location is about 10 miles from Frontera Audubon Center where I found and followed 2 Zone-tailed Hawks. Though not a known location where they are found as was Anzalduas County Park but it is only a few miles from the Rio Grande River and Mexico. Clearly shown in both pics, the head and body are blackish. The bottom pic shows the white lores, black bill, and bright yellow cere as well as some of the umderside of the remiges that are gray with dark barring (the latter not well visualized). The top ...

Short video clip of the juvenile Zone-tailed Hawk I spotted perched in a deciduous tree in the El Zacatel,TX area. The hawk demonstrates a high level of attentiveness to other birds/etc around it as it turns repeatedly to look around providing nice views of it's plumage and characteristics. Video can be enlarged to fit screen for close-up viewing by clicking on box in far bottom right above. More in posts above. SeEtta