Harlan's hawk or Harlan's red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis harlani) is a subspecies of the red-tailed hawk. My first image of a bird in flight, and it was unique! A lifer's lifer? Perhaps.
My wife and I were on the way to the Sierras near Jackson, CA. We had passed Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife Area just west of Sacramento (literally) hundreds of time from 1964, long before it was named after this state legislator and nature lover in 1997. On this day, following a very quick decision, we decided pull off and stop for an hour or so. Hoping that it wasn't duck hunting season which usually scares off most of the avian life, we just hoped that the attraction of the adjacent marshland and intricate waterways would entice birds even though it was very late in the year. We decided on the trip because the Sierras were covered with snow, the roads were open, and we hoped that the migration was beginning in the mountains. But we weren't in the mountains, and it was almost December when not many non-resident birds are here.
Got out of the car with my SX40 and spotted what I thought was a Red-tailed hawk above, at the juncture of within and out of range. I pointed and tried to guess which direction he's be going in. For the (literally) thousandth time, I whispered the photographer's prayer. "Just this once. I'll never ask again." (Photographers, as fishermen, lie.) It was 2011, and I'd yet to get a bird in flight.
I set the exposure for bright sky, focused in the general vicinity as he wheeled south, and shot in burst mode. Two were in the viewfinder. We're on our way to Jackson on the first leg of this trip, and all of a sudden, I wanted to be home in front of the monitor. From what I could see in the viewfinder, it wasn't a Red-tailed hawk...
We came home four days later. A successful outing (because there are no unsuccessful outings to the Sierras unless you were a member of the Donner Party of 87, non-smoking, economy), but the first thing I wanted to see was this hawk. What I saw, is pretty much what you're seeing after a crop. Not perfect, but more than acceptable for my first bird in flight. Now, what the hell was it?
I sent it to Jack, my biologist/naturalist friend, and to the two ardent birders I knew from my association with the local Audubon Society. And I started my research. Three days later, two of the three had responded with, "Harlan's Hawk, but unique in every way." It is now nine years later, and it's still the best guess.
Quote: "Apart from a variably white-streaked throat, their underparts are usually mostly black with variable white streaking and barring on the thighs or crissum. There are up to four main variations from the typical one above: extreme dark morph (where even the throat is black and no pale streaking is present), dark morph (with barring still present from the tarsus to the underside), rare pale morph (with few blackish blobs on the belly and generally a whiter head) and perhaps even rarer types where the base color is grayish. " No one mentioned a white eye and black head, not one. Not Cornell, not iBird or eBird. It has to be the EXTREME DARK MORPH of the Red-tailed hawk.
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