Birds and Nature

(note click on 'Read More' below to see the other photos of this hawk)  I spotted this Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk today not far from the Arkansas River above a field right in town.  It was 150-200 feet away so had to crop severely to get these pics.  The significant amount of white on this hawk's face, the white on it's breast and mottling on tail are field marks for this northern sub species of Red-tailed Hawk. Some years we get a 5 or more Harlan's moving through or spending some of the winter.  This is the first one I have seen in the Canon City area this winter.  SeEtta

I spotted this dark morph Harlan's Hawk perched on a pole just outside of the small town of Manzanola, CO two days ago. I inadvertently flushed it and it's bright white leucistic feathers made this bird really stand out. I see several Harlan's Red-tailed Hawks most years but I have never seen a leucistic one. Dark morph harlani characteristics include blackish body and underwing coverts, substantial white on it's breast, white streaks on head, white underside of tail with blackish terminal band contrasts with the blackish uppertail that has some white basal feathers.   The bright white leucistic wing feathers are most eye-catching. "Leucism is defined as a partial or total lack of eumelanin and phaeomelanin in the feathers as a result of inherited disorder of the deposition of these pigments in the feathers....Different forms of leucism are known and can vary from only a few white feathers ( The other obvious charac...

As I was driving north on the way back to Colorado I spotted this Harlan's Hawk perched right next to H87 a little north of O'Donnell, TX over the week-end. As I was driving the 75 mph speed limit I had to make a turn several hundred yards down the highway and go back to confirm it. Like most other Harlan's Hawks I have observed it was extremely sensitive to being looked at and photographed so even though I stopped on the shoulder of the other side of this divided 4 lane highway it took off before I could take any photos. It did just fly to the next utility pole so I carefully followed and stopped even further back to get the photos which I took from inside my car so even though I took the pics at 600mm I still had to crop them severely to get these pics. Harlan's characteristics on this hawk include: a white streaked throat and breast on very dark feathers with white lores, white supercilium plus additional and fairly extensive white on it's head. In keep...

Not the best pics especially because they were so back lit but they do show the field marks for the harlani subspecies of Red-tailed Hawk. Top 2 pics show the whitish tail, blackish belly, streaked white chest and white on face surrounding the eye. SeEtta

I first spotted this black hawk over the week-end and from it's behavior and looks without binoculars thought it was a Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk. I has been very distant from the road when it perches so strained my long zoom and then cropping to get these pics. From it's whitish tail this is not one that I have seen here in recent weeks. It shows the black, rather than brown plumage found on Western Red-tails, a little white on it's face and most prominent is the whitish tail with dark tip. Interestingly there is a second Harlan's here that was perched several hundred yards from this one over fields. SeEtta

On my trip east of Pueblo I also found this dark morph Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk in the area near Lake Holbrook. Another very spooky hawk that would flush as soon as I turned off the engine of my car. Again mostly blackish plumage (altho a little more dark brown in it) with white lorals. It also had red in it's tail though it was multiple thin bands across it. SeEtta

I found this Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk at dusk when I took a detour on my way home from Pueblo. Given the low light and the fact I took these shots from my car with the engine running (I had only a few seconds to shoot these before it flushed) these pics came out better than I expected. In the top shot the white loral area is visible as is the whitish undertail and some white spots on it's otherwise blackish underparts found on an adult dark morph Harlan's. The blurry bottom pic does show the silvery flight feathers contrasted against it's dark body and underwing coverts and it's whitish tail.  SeEtta

While they breed in and near Alaska, Harlan's Red-tailed Hawks winter in parts of eastern Colorado. In the past several years I have been delighted to find a number of Harlan's Hawks in south central and southeastern Colorado including my home town of Canon City. I spotted this first of the season bird as I was walking the Canon City Riverwalk over the week-end. Harlan's are well known to be extremely skittish and the way this hawk flew gave me the impression it was a Harlan's. However it ducked into the cottonwoods south of the trail and disappeared. When I returned from my walk I searched for this hawk and found it perched in the cottonwoods about 300-400 feet away--thus my photos are limited by this distance. However, the white lores and cheeks, whitish chest, whitish underside of tail with otherwise blackish feathering are clearly seen in the top pic are distinctive for dark/intermediate-morph Harlan's. The middle pic adds the view of the outer tail ...

I spotted this very shy Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk as I was driving early this week. It was in the back of a large tree and partially obscured by the branches and the location was difficult to find a place to pull off the road safely so these were the only photos I got. Though I stayed in my car and was about 150 feet away this bird flushed and flew into a tree deep into private property where I could just barely see it. SeEtta

Interestingly the Harlan's Hawk I posted about just below apparently jumped on the same thermal as the Sandhill Crane family as I watched them all rising higher and higher sometimes in the same view as in this photos. SeEtta

This is a late post as I actually spotted this Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk when I was watching the Sandhill Crane family in Canon City right before they took off to continue their migration This hawk was perched quite a distance away, about 400 feet away, so the perched photos have been severely cropped to see the field marks--black with a little white on breast and around forehead plus undertail. This hawk took off and apparently got on a thermal to rise high in the sky showing off a classic Harlan's underside pattern. SeEtta

I spotted this Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk today on the east side of Canon City. It was very shy flushed when it saw me photographing it from more than 250 feet away so photos are not the best--and it was 5:30 pm so light was low. With it's mostly white face, dark crown, brownish-black body, streaked white breast, blackish belly I believe this is a Light morph (or using Wheeler's scheme, a light intermediate morph) Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk. The tail is whitish above on the basal half with rufous on the outer half. The underside of tail looks like marble with rufous. SeEtta

Yesterday I found two dark morph Harlan's Hawks on private property in Canon City. Both were more than 300 feet away so have cropped the photos tightly just to get these views. The top two photos are of one Harlan's that has a small amount of white streaking on it's breast. As shown on the tree limbs, we had about 2 inches of snow at that point. The bottom two pics are of the second Harlan's and it had more white streaking on it's chest. Interestingly these two were perched within a few hundred yards of each other though likely the trees obscured their view. SeEtta

. Yesterday I spotted what looked like a Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk perched in a tree in the Canon City area. It was one of the most skittish hawks I have photographed--I stayed in my car the entire time as I try very hard not to flush hawks but it still flushed when I took photos from several hundred feet away/ After I gave up looking for it I was driving back home when I ran into the same hawk again as it soared in large circles so I was able to get the photo at the top. I followed it in my car and it came down to perch for a short time so I got the bottom two pics. I believe this is an Intermediate morph Harlan's as described by Wheeler in Raptors of Western North America . It is very blackish, the auriculars are white and so is it's forehead, it has whitish streaks on it's throat, it's breast has streaks of white but more black, the rest of it's underparts are black with white speckling and smaller streaks, remiges are barred, tail is barred wit...