You got a good enough shot here to make an easy job of IDing.

This is an adult eastern Red-tailed Hawk.

- Notice the dark patagials (leading edge to underwing). That is a red-tailed field mark you can take to the bank.

- Dark underwing "commas" where the coverts meet the primary flight feathers.

- Rufous tail

- Dark head/white chest combo

- This bird is pretty light underneath- nearly lacking a belly band. The tail is a bit washed out, too- although that is not unusual in bright light. A juvie would show tail bands and would probably be more heavily marked below.

This bird looks a lot like many of the RTHAs I see near my home in the central Plains. I have a few in the area that are completely lacking a belly band and have washed out rufous tails. There MAY be some overlap into the "Krider's" subspecies due to interbreeding, but I don't even know if that's true. They are just lighter-morphed than most easterns. Some people have mentioned a possible "Fuertes" subspecies existing, but my understanding is they are south and west of my location. In your Crossley Raptor guide, see page 68 bird #3 for Fuertes.

I think your bird has a bit of a belly band though, but just a faint one.

Okay, TMFF, I can tell you right now, you're always going to be better at this than I. In this picture, maybe a tad of a belly band - just too far away. Checked pg. 68, the term Fuertes alone can trigger a semantic effort that will only further confuse my detective efforts in hawk identification. Fuertes leads to epicene which, to me, still indicates juvenile traits. So I've decided to continue to take their picture and ID them as best possible and settle for "It's a RT Hawk at some stage of development" and call it a day. Should have started this study 50 years ago, lol. The Crossley books are very good, TY for mentioning him.
Jane

The only thing with Crossley's Raptor guide is that, for relative beginners, it's photograph overload. Turn to any particular page and one could quickly feel overwhelmed by intricate plumage differences that ultimately jumble together to form one big complex hawk in your memory.

Kind of like a library without a card catalog.

There's very little you can do other than commit some field marks, flight styles, and behavior to memory. Or, just get good pictures and ask me. :-) Although there are times I have trouble IDing a hawk myself. Depends on how good of a look I can get.

I think what else may be helpful is to always know what you might be likely to see in your area. In CT, your Red-taileds are going to be easterns. They pretty much all look the same. You probably have many year-round Red-tailed residents and the guy you photographed up there probably has a mate on a nest right now. A nesting (adult) pair of Red-taileds have the rufous tails. A juvenile (last year's brood) bird will lack a rufous tail and will show brown and white tail bands instead. A clean, lightly marked underside is more indicative of an adult- juvies have more brown markings and look streaky underneath. Some adults are heavily marked too though! Adult Red-taileds will also show a thin dark rim around the back of the underwing. You can see that on the bird you photographed.

I recommend Dunne/Sibley/Sutton 'Hawks in Flight, 2nd Edition'. I have to say that I bought the Crossley guide for pleasure rather than purpose. I love the photos! But when I first sat down with it, I could already score very high on the "quizzes" he embedded within it. So, I learned my skills elsewhere. Hawks in Flight was a huge help with that.

TMFF said: Or, just get good pictures and ask me. :-) "
Good by me. I can't even grade myself on the quizzes - too new. But taking pictures? Oh, yes, but at noon, high in the sky is difficult free hand, but I keep trying. Thank you, TMFF.