Disclaimer, I am still actively debating the ID of this hawk. For context, I originally called this hawk a red-shouldered hawk (to which I was told it was a red-tailed) on certain "squishy" per say details I didn't quite understand, but there are certain details that don't add up for a red-tailed hawk. For one, this hawk was noticeably smaller than a red-tailed hawk when I saw him in the field, and when I had the window rolled down to take pictures of this hawk, which was perched in a pine tree, he flew where I got these pictures, where he made a rapid, high pitched call that sounded very similar to a red-shouldered hawk, and did not sound like a red-tailed hawk in any manner that I've heard at least, and have not found similar sounding red-tailed hawk recordings. On the Merlin App (version 3.0 760 - 2022.0, I know, it needs updating) the first and third calls are the closest calls I can get to what I heard. I do not have any recordings myself as everything happened so quickly to the point we couldn't relocate the hawk. I also do not have any outer tail shots and I acknowledge the patigials issue that could arise from this. I also acknowledge that all reports of red-shouldered x red-tailed hawks are only in the northeast in the US and that general area in Canada as well, but to be fair the possibility of a hybrid happening anywhere that the two overlap is not entirely possible. Given this, I think it's also possible that any possible hybrids would also look slightly different given that both species have different subspecies than in the northeast. For these reasons, I am requesting that no ID's are added to this just to add an ID to it because of uncertainty. Regardless of whether or not the ID agrees with mine, I am requesting any and all details describing why this hawk is a hybrid, a red-shouldered hawk and which subspecies, or a red-tailed and which subspecies. I do not think this hawk has a good chance of being a calarus red-tail because I haven't seen one with chest mottling quite like this hawk, to add on a white throat (although not diagnostic) it's still quite rare to show on calarus so I just want to make sure the identifications that go into this observation are thorough. I very easily could be wrong with this, but this hawk just seems off to me.
Bald Eagle 🦅 got left alone and landed in peace ✌️.
Couldn’t get a clear shot through the trees…