Wait, I am not getting Emperor Cichlid, so dont worry about them.

Nice pictures! Gorgeous bird. You're out west? These photos nicely demonstrate how much more "rufousy" the underparts are on the western light-morphs versus their eastern counterparts.

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.

What a great shot Jeff, I have only seen the Young one a couple of times she is venturing off to find her own territory, the parents have reclaimed out back and I see the Male quite often. He lets me come right up to him but the Female she is still not quite sure of me and still screeches at me. I am hoping next year the pair will have a couple of young ones for me to watch. I see from the NY ones they really interact with each other. If I get any pictures I will post them... I hope your Juvvie stays around....they are fun to observe.... Claire