I would not call myself an expert by any means, but I have worked on my raptor identification skills for a few decades. I am partially colorblind, in the red-green-brown spectrum, so I do not rely on colors when I try to identify a bird. I am not certain at all about the species of your hawk, but the second I saw the photo I thought Rough-legged.OLDE CUTLER wrote:I always have a problem with identifying the hawks in our area. There are several species that have similar colors, juvenile birds can vary so much from the adults in color, and my color vision isn't very good either. I always try to get close, sharp pictures to compare to the bird books I have.Dinadan wrote:Great photos of that hawk, Olde Cutler! I am thinking maybe a Rough Legged Hawk: it does not look like a Red Tail to me. Heck, I can even identify the Garter Snake - very sharp photos.
If you are interested in hawks, allow me to suggest a book. Hawks in Flight, by Dunne, Sibley, and Sutton. It has helped me more than any other book (I have a lot of bird books) when it comes to identifying hawks. And all illustrations are grayscale, not color. Here is a link to the book on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Hawks-Flight-Sec ... 160&sr=1-1