Birding and Bird Photography

Definitely Purple Martin's. Species of special concern out here in CA. Real cool colonial cavity nester. They haven't been known to use man made bird box "hotels" out here in the west unfortunately. They have elsewhere in the USA.

 

Interesting, that the only place I’ve never seen them anywhere but “Apartment boxes” or community gourd hangings around here.

 

Adult versus juvenile RTHA is all tail plumage. Adults (12 monthsish plus)have red tail feathers and first year birds are brown tail feathers until about 10 -14 months or so when they go through their first pre-alternate molt and start dropping the juvenal tail feathers and growing in their adult red tail feathers.

@Gyrkin was correct that you cant tell from this photo if it is an adult or not. From reading a few pages of this thread I can tell this guy is a good birder!

 

The large white chest coloration on red tails is almost always indicative of a juvenile. The tail is easier obviously but without that I’d still confidently say the bird in the picture is a juvenile.

 

Actually there are more changes than just the tail, but they are fairly subtle. From that photo it's hard to be conclusive, but I would definitely lean toward immature. The body plumage changes some and gets red tones with adults. The eye changes color too. Immatures have blue eyes and adults brown. Hard to tell eye color form the photos. Also, there is a lot of individual variation with redtails, in both adult and immature plumage that muddies things up with ID'ing them. If I was placing a bet, I would go with immature, but I wouldn't bet the life's savings.

 

Subscribe! What's happening fellow birders. Just found this thread, thanks @92shawman for starting this.

Been a passionate birder for 20 years and I am a wildlife biologist & researcher out in CA. Do endgandered species, MBTA, and other regulatory compliance at my day job and have a side gig doing wildlife research for conservation organizations. In short, I get paid to bird .. well less these days but that's how it goes in career land.

Glad my obsessions for my rig, TW, and wildlife have come together. I love playing the bird ID game so looking forward to following the thread.

 

I wish I could say that out here. I've been involved with putting up alot of those boxes for mitigation and conservation but no success yet. We still monitor them annually though. In Sacramento there is a small population that nests in underpasses with white-throated swifts and northern rough-winged swallows, but they have dramatically declined due to a smart American Kestrel getting in there and depredating them.

Naturally they nest in old dead snags. Only found a few colonial nest sites in snags in the Santa Cruz mountains.

 

That’s the fun thing with red tails, the huge variations in coloration. As far as I can recall and tell by pictures (35mm, it was 15+ years ago), all of mine had yellow/brown eyes. The juveniles I would trap and release after one season and the few I kept over the moult for a second season never seemed to have a difference in eye color.

My first, she was a pretty typical looking red tail.



My third, as a juvenile and a first year adult plumage. He was much darker, much smaller, a lot faster and more fun.

 

I reread my RTHA post. Being I'm the noob to this thread I offer my apologies if that came off like an asshole. I should of just ignored it. I was trying to point out a 100% ID couldn't be made by those photos to the age of the bird. Again my apologies if it rubbed anyone the wrong way. I am just happy to have found like minded taco folks who bird.

In the west the RTHA keep the whitish breast and belly band from juvenal plumage to adult plumage. Also true with the intermediate to dark morphs (belly band and patagial marks being darker than the breast .. if a belly band at all). I've never read any raptor literature or guides that state what you are saying or read that as way to ID juvenile versus adult. Perhaps I am wrong. If so, thanks for the education and I'd love to read that source (guide, book, publication, etc) where you read that. I digress.. I dont think this is the purpose of this thread. Again, @crazysccrmd my apologies for coming off the wrong way.

I agree 100%. I dont think you can ID the age of that bird with those photos with any certainty. Yep it is probably a first year, but with the extreme variation in buteos.. who knows.

Still never seen a Gyr by the way. Loved your photo.

 

I’d say just about anything bird watching/identifying related goes in this thread. I don’t know if what I said is written anywhere, it’s just been my experience with watching and handling them over the years.

 

Just like people, every bird is/can be a bit different. I seen a Great Blue Herron yesterday while riding my bike that was so huge I’d swore it was some type of crane...

 

Second the eye color observation. All the literature talks about the eye color change ... but, my buddy just caught a red-tail he banded 8 years ago (raptor research at Golden Gate Raptor Observatory) and the eye color hasn't changed at all from when they caught the bird as a juvenile.

 

Good stuff in here! I like seeing everyone's different experiences come in.

Just got back from a trip through NM and AZ, tons of new species for me! TX is gonna be crazy... We're sticking to the stretch between Corpus Christi and Houston to avoid over-doing ourselves. We'll have to get down to Estero Llano Grande sometime, though. Thanks, @calicoaran!

 

Here are a couple of photos that show redtail eye color pretty good.

Immature


Adult

 

I just realized everyone probably thought that was a wild gyr. Sorry I didn't mean to represent it as such. The bird in that photo was Clyde. I see him every day.

 

Been watching this thread since I joined the forums (newish member) and yall make me want to pick my camera back up again.

Just popping in to say hi to the enthusiasts here, love photography but haven't touched my camera in nearly five years. Birds are my favorite subject, such personality to them. Here are a few oldies to add to my intro, hope to continue to see more great photos from yall.

 

Green St. Pete parrot - several hundred loud ones frequent my neighborhood, a Limpkin family dining on apple snails , osprey looking right at me, yellow crowned night heron

 

Anhinga family

 

Love those night herons, great subjects. I have a few that frequent my back yard at night, and hate me when I let my dogs out to pee. They grunt at me the entire time, lol.

 

A few I have been fortunate to see,


There always has to be one oddball,