092621 Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

https://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/lifestyles/birding-today-keep-your-eyes-open-for-the-sharp-shinned-hawk/article_51b9c67f-53ea-598c-9350-8634ea2ca7b0.html 

Birds of the Desert: Harris's Hawk

A very rare visitor to the skies of Oklahoma, the Harris's Hawk is a raptor of saguaro-mesquite, paloverde, organ pipe cactus, or mesquite woodlands.  They are normally in the extreme southwest part of the country as well as southern Texas.  They are social hawks with a cooperative effort in hunting and know the meaning of family as a unit.  A couple of them will flush their prey and the third will capture it.  It may lead to sibling rivalry, but it is a healthy way to do it.

Their body structure is somewhat confusing, running about midway between a buteo and an accipiter with short wings, long tail, lanky build, and rounded, broad wings.  Its  genus name certainly suggests these attributes, parabuteo.  The wings are all dark with rufous shoulders and white upper tail coverts and tail tip.  Audubon even named this bird after his friend and ornithological companion, Edward Harris.

                                                               Harris's Hawk
                                                           Eastland, TX 2018

The dusky hawk breeds in the southwest US through Mexico and Central America, south to Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.  They will reside in semi-desert, sparse woodlands, mangrove swamps, and marshes with sparse trees in some of their assorted ranges.  They do not migrate and are resident birds in their own zones.  Even though their populations are declining, they have relocated to developed areas.



Harris's Hawk (background) with
   Peregrine Falcon (foreground)
Digital Art by Liana Winters Smith


Highly intelligent and easy to train, this is a popular falconry bird, which lends to the fact that it is seen in Europe and Asia.  Its size falls between a Red-tailed Hawk and a Peregrine Falcon with the female thirty percent larger than the male, which is a form of sexual dimorphism.

Their agility and hunting practices allow them to take rabbits, lizards and large insects. The bay- winged hawk will nest in shrubby growth, cacti, and small trees.  Young have been known to stay with their parents for up to three years, lending to cooperative breeding.   The female could breed up to three times each year.

The dusky hawk will often stand upon another if perching spots are lacking.

Oklahoma Migratory Species Profile: Peregrine Falcon

Stooping at a conservative 186 mph, what can possibly escape the clutches of the Peregrine Falcon?

Uncommon in open locales, especially near water, this missile of a bird of prey nests on edges of cliffs as well as within cities upon buildings or bridges.  A solitary speed demon such as this to be reckoned with, the peregrine hunts prey such as small or medium sized birds.  As seen in the video, it also swiftly dispatches what it considers threats to its young, both real and imagined.

DDT and other equally destructive pesticides nearly eradicated the duck hawk in the mid-twentieth century in the US, but the species managed to rebound with the help of captive breeding.

Falconry has been an avid sport for an easy millennia, and the peregrine was always one of the most coveted of prizes.  The only continent devoid of this remarkable species in Antarctica.  It also cares nothing for tropical forests or very high mountains, as its talents are squelched in those ecosystems.
It reaches sexual maturity in one year and healthy populations will breed between the ages of two and three.  A pair mates for life and they return to the same nesting spot each year.  The species is dimorphic, and its markings are unmistakable.

Courtship between a pair is the most acrobatic natural system that one will ever encounter, including dives, spirals, passing food between the two individuals, and the necessity of unparalleled aerial maneuvers to receive the morsel.

Its lineage includes the deadly agility of the Prairie Falcon, where it likely originated in Africa through western Eurasia.  Mitochondrial DNA structures tend to surprise the scientific world, for much of its genetics have allowed study and breeding to creat even stronger birds than it originally was made for.




                    Peregrine Falcon
                 pen and ink drawing
               by Liana Winters Smith
       

The Perilanner combines hardiness with hunting and similar parenting, and then came the Gyrfalcon to produce large and even more strikingly marked birds.  There is even the Perlin, which is a mix with the Merlin.

Peregrines are just as lethal as their own predators, which include the Golden and Bald Eagles.  If these birds come too close to the eyases in the nest, they will usually win the encounter, but they usually prefer to keep their distance unless it is warranted.

                                                              Peregrine Falcon
                                                         Great Salt Plains, 2017

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Red-shouldered Hawk

Kee-yah, kee-yah!

Often observed perching in trees at edges of clearings, the Red-shouldered Hawk is usually seen near water.  It is vocal with crescents shown across its outer primaries, which is used as one feature of identification.  Checked flight feathers are also another identifying characteristic.  It is not usually seen in the same habitat as the Red-tailed Hawk, yet there are exceptions to the rule.

The three subspecies are very distinctive, which includes the California, Florida, and Eastern.  The California has a solid orange breast, the Eastern has orange bars, and the Florida is much paler as adults.  The brown juvenile is streaked below and very similar to the Broad-winged Hawk.

                                                        Eastern Red-shouldered Hawk
                                                            Boomer Lake Park, 2016

The most distinctive signage is the red shoulder patch, or epaulet, and it is often the most common hawk in its habitat, where it hunts in swamps, coves, agricultural areas with plenty of trees, and riparian woodlands.  Sedentary like other buteos they soar while hunting or from a low perch where it will drop to capture its prey.

Mouse hawks consume a protein-rich diet of small mammals and birds, frogs, reptiles, snails, etc.

They are migratory in northern regions, and are on the breeding grounds by February or March.  They will head south in October or November, generally wintering in Mexico.

                                                         Eastern Red-shouldered Hawk
                                                              Boomer Lake Park, 2016

Nesting is done in tall trees, usually nearest the tree trunk, and they prefer hardwoods, though pines can suffice in a pinch.  They use platform nests with twigs, lined with lighter substrate and feathers.

A popular breeding bird of Oklahoma, the red-bellied hawk is usually up for photographic opportunities.  Also nicknamed winter hawk, hen hawk, red-shouldered buzzard, and a few others depending upon regional locales.

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Cooper's Hawk

Peak migration for hawks is usually in late September, so now is the time to brush up on your ID skills.  You will be comparing species that could be side by side, and you could see a dozen or two every minute.  The largest conflict is between Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks, and the jury could still be out on those sightings.

The adult Cooper's hawk will be wearing a dark cap and will have a paler nape.  It also has white undertail coverts conspicuously displayed in flight, and since the Northern Goshawk is not seen in Oklahoma with any regularity, you will have a Cooper's.  It is also best to focus on the rounded tail shape and long length.  Their flight is a flap, flap, glide, not constant flapping.  Also observe head size and the leading edge of the wing.  An adult male Coop will also have gray cheeks.  They will also be more apt to be found on a fencepost than a Sharpie.

                                                              Adult Cooper's Hawk
                                                                Boomer Lake Park

As an accipiter, they have relatively short rounded wings and long tails.  They are bird and small mammal eaters, and they could be found in your front yard or the deep woods.  They can pour on the speed or they can glide into your feeders with very little warning.  If you hear a bang on your front storm door and find a dead bird, the culprit is likely the Cooper's Hawk.  Wingbeats are also choppy and stiff.

The two age classes are adult and juvenile, or first year.  The first year is buff-white with thin, chocolate streaks and could be found only on the breast or upper belly.

                                                              Juvenile Cooper's Hawk
                                                                 Flying Off with Gull
                                                                   Boomer Lake Park

We all know that the hen hawk is larger than the Sharpie, but you must not rely on size, because they are rarely side by side.  Know the other characteristics that have been outlined with practice, and you'll not go wrong.

A breeder of the mature forest, nests are in large deciduous trees at the crotch or next to a trunk in a coniferous tree.   The chicken hawk prefers deciduous trees in many cases.

                                                                                       

                          Cooper's Hawk

                       Liana Winters Smith

 Single brooders from April through July in Oklahoma, the male selects the nest site, and builds most of the structure.  He remains attentive to her needs from courtship through the nestling process.    Young birds fledge after a little more than a month, and they remain dependent for another month.

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Swainson's Hawk

A lanky hawk of the west, desert, prairie, and farmland, the Swainson's Hawk is one of four buteos with four notched primaries (as opposed to five).  They are uncommon and hunt from the air, a perch (still-hunting) or even upon the ground, running after their quarry.  They generally feed on reptiles or small mammals in summer, then resort to grasshoppers, locusts, and other invertebrates for the remainder of the year.

Known as the locust or grasshopper hawk, this handsome bird was named after William Swainson, a British naturalist.  Swainson felt like many of us do when it comes to living things.  They were an inherent passion.

Suspected to have a migration range of 14,000 miles, this raptor is likely the longest traveler in the family of hawks.  Wintering in Argentina or Southern Brazil, immature Swainson's Hawks can see their way to southern Canada by late March and their migration can peak from mid-April forward.

Having diverse and somewhat unusual eating habits, this hawk will take Mallards, fledged Lark Buntings, incapacitated Sage Grouse, toads, salamanders, whip snakes, the American Kestrel, young Short-eared Owls, and several others.  They are also known for hunting upon freshly plowed fields for rodents, and are opportunistic feeders, as well.

These birds come in a light, intermediate and dark morph.  Oklahoma has the lowest percentage of dark morphs, while California has the highest.  They can behave similarly to the Northern Harrier by flying low to the ground at times.  Wingbeats are deep and loose, and they will soar with wings in a dihedral angle, or an angle between two intersecting planes.  They glide like an Osprey would.  These are all tell tale signs of how to spot the bird on a hawk watch.

Last year, while visiting the Oklahoma Panhandle, these were relatively common, perching on telephone poles and fence posts.  This photo came from that area, with the sun behind the bird.

                                                                Swainson's Hawk
                                                            Cimmaron County, OK

Another interesting point, also from last year, was during monarch migration.  A notation was made on a butterfly site to go outside and look up, which I did.  I saw no monarchs, but observed fifteen Swainson's Hawks heading southbound.  It was one of the most remarkable sights ever seen, especially with the way that the light struck the underwings and their breasts in late afternoon, as they simply glowed.

Swainson's will hybridize with Red-tailed and Rough-legged Hawks, but it is questionable if Ferruginous Hawks are in the mix.