Hawk ID

[Wetlander]

I know it's a Red-tailed, but I'm guessing Juvenile Borealis?

[Deleted]

Nice shots, Wetlander. Digiscoping is working out well for you.
A good photo is worth a lot of words for ID purposes.

I'm not familiar enough with eastern Redtails to say for sure, but if I saw this one around here I would probably just call it a juvenile western (calurus) Redtail. Superficially, I don't see anything jumping out at me to look for another subspecies besides the local one. But that may just reflect the fuzziness of my knowledge of hawk ID.

Was there something specific about this one that pointed you to borealis? You could well have a point.

What do others think?

Raptors are another topic with ample opportunities for learning. Some hawks are straightforward, but some can be quite tricky and I confess that I often puzzle over them without reaching a final ID, probably more than any other group of birds that I can think of.

Stan

[Wetlander]

To be hones, my limited field guide led me to Eastern, plus I sometimes see Eastern around here.