You are absolutely right. This is a rough-legged hawk. The area where I took this image had a few red-tailed hawks and I was photographing them. This particular hawk I only saw from below, circling higher and higher. I checked with a local bird expert and also looked at an image of a rough-legged hawk in one of my bird books and it matches the image here. I'm just a photographer who enjoys taking pictures of birds (and other wildlife). Thanks for making the correction.
Josh Lawrey
01-Feb-2005 16:13
In looking up pictures of Red Tailed hawks to show some one, I came across your site. The bird that you have pictured described as a Red Tail is actually a Rough Legged Hawk. I'm not attempting to be a know it all or put someone down for their mistake. I just thought that this would help your sight's accountability. On this bird there are some key ID field marks to look at. One is the dark carpal or wrist patches under the birds wings. Red tails only have thin commas in this area. The belly of this bird is very dark and has the characteristic cumberbun of a rough leg. One of the best features is the birds broad dark terminal band on its tail. This is a very good field mark of a female rough leg compared to the light banded grey underside of a red tail's tail. I hope this helps you. Josh Lawrey
