Looks like a red-shouldered hawk to me. Were the wings brownish?

i'm fairly certain its a red-tailed hawk.

It's a red-shouldered, from the dark chest coloring and the slightly light-colored belly-band. If it were a red-tail there would be marked contrast between the dark belly and light chest. The chest would be very light-colored and the belly would be dark. Here, it's slightly reversed.

saw your quote in the nypost today blakemanj, the hawks shall return!

J Philip,

Yes, I expect the Central Park/Park Ave red-tail pair to resume nesting as before. This is nest-building deadtime, but this will develop into full nesting in a few weeks. Watch what happens in February, when the increasing day length kicks in the breeding hormones.

I agree with John.

Luc

THAT is definately an adult Broad Winged Hawk. looks nothing like RS or RT. definately buteo. breast resembles that of the broad winged below.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

Hmmm . . . I could possibly entertain an I.D. of broad-winged for this bird. I think I stayed away from that because of the expectation that all the broadwings have left the country for the winter. I suppose it could be possible to have one hanging around the Gulf coast.

I can't agree with your exxagerated statement that it looks nothing like a red-shouldered, though. All red-shouldereds and broadwings look a lot alike, requiring a second look for correct I.D. in most cases.

i can see how it could be an immature red shouldered. i meant to type def. not a red tailed. i also realized that he lives in FLA so red shouldered are pretty common around there. i still think it could possibly be broad winged considering the wing is mostly flat brown. also note the flank and leg feathers are not barred or streaked, where the florida RS is heavily streaked. the pic might be a little too blurry for anyone to be able to ID it.
sorry if my last message came out wrong.

I notice from field guides that broadwings regularly winter in s. Florida. The wings on this bird do look more like broad-wing. If you see the bird again, take careful note of the underwing pattern; also, the white tail bars on red-shouldered are all the same width. Broadwing has one bar noticeably wider than the rest.

If you look carefully at the wing of this bird you will be able to notice all the white barring typical to Red-shouldered Hawk.

Luc

I am interested in the debate over this photo because I think I photographed the same species in Chattanooga, Tennessee on 1/1 (http://www.bobedens.com/BobEdens/recent/pages/RedShoulder028.htm) I think its a red-shouldered but all I know for sure is it isn't a red-tail. [grin]

Here is a link that might be useful: photo of red-something hawk

Yup urs is a red shouldered hawk

Hi Bob,

Yours is an adult Red-shouldered Hawk.

The adult shows a white and black(of course brown on immature) barring on wings.
See also the beautiful rufous breast of that bird.
There are 3 subspecies of Red-shouldered and these subspecies are less or more darker.
There is one for the Northeast, one for the Florida area and another for California area.
I think yours, Bob, looks more like the Florida subspecies.
Sorry I cannot remember the latin names.

Luc