Looking forward to that raptor page help you might get Elaine... Because I wouldn't be surprised this would be - yet again a new species thrown in here for good measure! - an immature, light phase, SWAINSON's hawk! Way back out East from its normal range! But there >hasThe one detail that leads me to this species, relying solely on the Peterson guide, is the absence of dark band on the TIP of the tail, which your excellent photos seem to reveal. In the book I see no other non-accipiter hawk (wings do seem too long for an accipiter) with barred chest and banded tail that shows this characteristic. MAXIMUM dimensions are also quite smaller than a Red-tail's. This would be a great bird finding for you to report to the specialists!

Well it was people that didn't really know any better, but i wanted to be sure since i am doing a presentation on it. How embarrassing would it be to do a presentation on it, and it turns out to be wrong.But wow thanks a lot i really appreciate it. The class is called biology for naturalists, and i really enjoy it. The area i live in is on the St. Lawrence River but specifically in a huge wetland area in Akwesasne, an Indian reservation that straddles the U.S. Canadian border, so i am sure to have many more pictures of better quality to show soon. Again thanks.

Well it was people that didn't really know any better, but i wanted to be sure since i am doing a presentation on it. How embarrassing would it be to do a presentation on it, and it turns out to be wrong.But wow thanks a lot i really appreciate it. The class is called biology for naturalists, and i really enjoy it. The area i live in is on the St. Lawrence River but specifically in a huge wetland area in Akwesasne, an Indian reservation that straddles the U.S. Canadian border, so i am sure to have many more pictures of better quality to show soon. Again thanks.

Yes, and confusing for those starting out too. Both Peterson's guide to Hawks and Wheeler & Clark's A Photographic Guide to North American Raptors state that the Fuertes and Krider Red-tailed Hawk subspecies/type lacks the dark belly band typical of the common Red-Tailed Hawk. In Sibley's big book it is stated that "Perched light morph Red-tailed hawks of all ages typically show a dark "belly-band" and a V - shaped pattern of white speckling on the back, both of which are excellent clues for identification." Couldn't see the back, but these descriptions along with the absence of the dark upper breast coloration present in the Swainson's and the lack of the feathers going all the way down to the feet in the Ferruginous tend to rule out those other two kinds of hawks which have a white belly. So I think it is may be one of those types of RTH although Krider's does seem to be almost an albino. Really neat hawks though. The chest looks like a pillow. Someone should start making pillows out of feathers instead of polyurethane.