ethane1235's Identifications

OK, here is a set of cruddy enough photos to challenge anyone, but it is an important record in the bird history of rarities in the U.S.

If anyone happens to have the new National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds, 6th Edition, if you look at page 534 you will see Crane Hawk listed as one of the "accidentals" which is not treated in the regular species accounts of that book. This record is based on a bird which visited Santa Ana N.W.R. in south Texas from 20 Dec 1987 until 9 April 1988. I was able to see this bird on 2 January 1988 and got some poor quality photos in the rain and dark, very overcast and drizzly skies. Somewhere, others got some better photos which I have seen, but in the 25 years since I have lost track of who had other shots. The record is accepted by the ABA (American Birding Association), the AOU (American Ornithologists Union) and the Texas Bird Records Committee (TBRC). The TBRC web page has two of these same shots at:

http://www.texasbirdimages.com/home/region-7/crane-hawk---region-7

and there is an account of the bird on the Texas Ornithological Society "Handbook of Texas Birds" web site at:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Zvj31yQwNoAC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=crane+hawk+in+texas&source=bl&ots=zQ_RFW9n4u&sig=oc6GtbHEvaWVb97ulxQEGwLXDU8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=A-6KUPq4LZSBrQGsvYDYDA&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=crane%20hawk%20in%20texas&f=false

This hawk, essentially a tropical species (its normal range is as far north as central Tamaulipas, Mexico where I have seen it on a few occasions), has quite long, reddish legs, a small head and a long tail with several white bands. It has paddle-shaped wings, with white crescents on the base of the primaries (which are not visible in any of the photos I have). The long legs are used to reach into crevices in dead trees to catch bats and other prey items. Anyway, the photos, in combination, allow for a positive ID for those familiar with the species, but I fully admit they are sorry photos. It was a long time ago, on grainy film and a dark day and the shots were the best I could do at the time with the equipment I had. The bird was quite skittish and very few people got any shots at all, even though the bird was seen by hundreds of folks during the three months it remained at Santa Ana. Sometimes the bird was not seen for many days in a row, but on other occasions it was seen easily. Since this remains the only U.S. record of the species, I thought I would post the shots here as a general interest item for raptor enthusiasts.