After a few years trying to get this all dark Harlan's Red-tailed to let me get close, this year I finally got a photo in which it was not just a small dark blob. The bird hangs out in the winter around one location in Tunica Co. along a main roadway but usually hidden. Tunica Co. holds more western type morphs of all kinds than any place I know of in the mid-south. A day trip can produce 150 RT Hawks and the now famous hawk tree can have anywhere from 2 or 3 up to 13 hawks in it at one time and 40 plus in view around it at the same time.

This bird has little or no light or whitish feathering on the upper breast so typical of dark Harlan's. Its tail is grayish white with dark gray streaks running along its length and sometimes when folded looks all dark. The bird is a beauty in the air. For photos of the rare light morph Harlan's Hawk (only 1% of all Harlan's)see my gallery "Odd or Unusual Birds".