<div dir="ltr"><div>Hello all,</div><div><br></div><div>Many thanks to everyone who responded to my query. The consensus is that it was indeed a leucocistic Red-tailed Hawk. A good start to my Christmas day.</div><div><br></div><div>What prompted me to ask my question was that when I went on the web to look for photos of FEHA and leucocistic RTHA, I came across some photos of FEHA with reddish tails (<a href="https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-0bWO-WJArvw%2FUqEdLjWqJRI%2FAAAAAAAABEY%2FnncrzrGB5KU%2Fs1600%2FFerr%2B02.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjerryliguori.blogspot.com%2F2013%2F12%2Fferruginous-hawks.html&docid=vPTMUm1AOJMkdM&tbnid=37KV74knZnWkDM%3A&vet=12ahUKEwi_0rnV-NTmAhUOnq0KHZPRCYE4rAIQMyhRMFF6BAgBEFc..i&w=956&h=576&itg=1&bih=912&biw=1833&q=ferruginous%20hawk%20tail%20feathers&ved=2ahUKEwi_0rnV-NTmAhUOnq0KHZPRCYE4rAIQMyhRMFF6BAgBEFc&iact=mrc&uact=8">like this one</a>), and this is also illustrated in the field guides (Peterson says it has a rufous wash on tail).<br></div><div><br></div><div>FEHA would have been a nice Christmas present, but a leucocistic Red-tail is not to be sneezed at.</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Dec 25, 2019 at 8:34 PM Arjun Guneratne <<a href="mailto:guneratne@macalester.edu" target="_blank">guneratne@macalester.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>Resending this, as it did not go through first time.</div><div><br></div><div><div>Hello Minnesota birders,</div><div><br></div><div>I need help with this ID. Any opinions on what this could be?</div><div><br></div><div>This
morning, I was driving down Montreal Avenue through the Highland Golf
Course when my daughter spotted a large raptor perched on the ground
by the road, tearing at something. It was large, perhaps bigger than a RTHA, mostly white with dark brown mottling on its upperparts, a red tail, and light brown streaks on its feathered upper legs and what looked like a mottled brown collar around its neck. See links to photos.<br></div><div><br></div><div>We stopped and I took several
photographs. My first thought was that it was a leucocistic Red-tailed
Hawk but there are several points that don't fit with that ID, including
that it seemed a bit bigger and chunkier than RTHA. The other
possibility is that it is a (possibly leucocistic) Ferruginous Hawk
—which would be amazing. Anything else it could be? See the photos
below:</div><div><br></div><div>1. <a href="https://flic.kr/p/2i5kod8" target="_blank">https://flic.kr/p/2i5kod8</a></div><div>2. <a href="https://flic.kr/p/2i5oMaJ" target="_blank">https://flic.kr/p/2i5oMaJ</a></div><div>3.<a href="https://flic.kr/p/2i5oNGw" target="_blank"> https://flic.kr/p/2i5oNGw</a></div><div><br></div><div>RTHA is most likely candidate, and it has a red-tail <br></div><div><br></div><div>but could it be Ferruginous Hawk?</div><div>-legs aren't visible in any of my photos, but the tibia are heavily feathered.<br></div><div>-there
is no indication of a dark belly band (although if it is a leucocistic
RTHA, that might explain it). Might not be visible from the angle I saw
it, pretty much as in the photograph.<br></div><div>-bill very large relative to size of head</div><div>-my impression that it was larger than RTHA; quite a beefy looking bird.</div><div>-Hard to see the extent of the gape, but it seems to reach to below about the midpoint of the eye <br></div><div>-the cere is yellow (this seems to be consistently the case with FEHA, less so with RTHA, going by images on the web)<br></div><div><div><div><div><br></div><div>Here's an image of FEHA that looks something like this bird in shape:</div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/badlandsnps/status/793612380689338369" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/badlandsnps/status/793612380689338369</a></div></div></div><div><br></div><div>Help with this ID would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</div></div></div><div><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr" style="letter-spacing:normal"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif">Arjun Guneratne<br>Professor of Anthropology<br>& Director of Asian Studies<br>Department of Anthropology<br>Macalester College</font></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif">1600 Grand Avenue<br>Saint Paul, MN 55105<br><br>Phone: (651) 696-6362<br>Fax: (651) 696-6324</font></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif">Students who wish to make an appointment to see me during regular office hours, click <a href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/selfsched?sstoken=UU5kWlZtMXBRZTdhfGRlZmF1bHR8NDEzNDEzYjFhMGJlYTU5ZTU2ODdlZTA3ZjYxMTg0Y2I" target="_blank">here</a>; if these times do not work for you, please email me to make an appointment<br></font></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></span></span><div style="font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">President, Macalester AAUP All-Faculty Chapter</span></span></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><a href="https://www.aaup.org/membership/join" target="_blank">https://www.aaup.org/membership/join</a></span></span></div></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font face="verdana, sans-serif">Book Review Editor for South Asia, <br><i>The Journal of Asian Studies</i></font></span></div></div></div></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><br><font size="2"><a href="http://www.macalester.edu/academics/anthropology/facultystaff/arjunguneratne/" target="_blank">Website</a><br></font></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2"><a href="http://works.bepress.com/arjun_guneratne/" target="_blank">Publications</a></font></span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr" style="letter-spacing:normal"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif">Arjun Guneratne<br>Professor of Anthropology<br>& Director of Asian Studies<br>Department of Anthropology<br>Macalester College</font></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif">1600 Grand Avenue<br>Saint Paul, MN 55105<br><br>Phone: (651) 696-6362<br>Fax: (651) 696-6324</font></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif">Students who wish to make an appointment to see me during regular office hours, click <a href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/selfsched?sstoken=UU5kWlZtMXBRZTdhfGRlZmF1bHR8NDEzNDEzYjFhMGJlYTU5ZTU2ODdlZTA3ZjYxMTg0Y2I" target="_blank">here</a>; if these times do not work for you, please email me to make an appointment<br></font></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></span></span><div style="font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">President, Macalester AAUP All-Faculty Chapter</span></span></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><a href="https://www.aaup.org/membership/join" target="_blank">https://www.aaup.org/membership/join</a></span></span></div></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font face="verdana, sans-serif">Book Review Editor for South Asia, <br><i>The Journal of Asian Studies</i></font></span></div></div></div></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><br><font size="2"><a href="http://www.macalester.edu/academics/anthropology/facultystaff/arjunguneratne/" target="_blank">Website</a><br></font></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><font size="2"><a href="http://works.bepress.com/arjun_guneratne/" target="_blank">Publications</a></font></span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>