I went out on the 27th with the sole intention of photographing raptors, and had a fantastic encounter at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo NY. I (likely) re-found a beautiful abieticola subspecies Red-tailed Hawk that I had previously documented on 31JAN2014. What in the world is "abieticola" one might ask? Well, I believe the word means, "of the firs." This would describe the arctic-like Canadian breeding grounds of this unofficial subspecies. Here on the east coast of the US, we typically only see borealis subspecies Red-tailed Hawks, and unlike the Western Calurus subspecies, they only come in one color morph. All of our Red-tailed Hawks look relatively the same. While not an official subspecies yet, we are sometimes lucky enough to get these beautifully marked abieticola Hawks that will migrate south in the winter in order to find better hunting grounds. In a nutshell, these abieticola are distinguished from borealis by having a much darker head/dorsal, rufous streaking in the bib, dark-bold belly bands with herringbone patterned feathers, dark bleeding patagials, and very bold underwing barring. This abieticola is out of range and date for our area. Jerry Liguori has indicated to me that some may have expanded their range, or like mine, might just be found out of the normal range. He has posted a much more informative explanation of this proposed subspecies in the past, and if you would like to learn more about identifying abieticola for this upcoming winter season, please click here. Ebird even allows for abieticola notation in your listings, and posted a wonderful article about this beautiful subspecies. To learn more about ebirding your abieticola finds, please click here. Last, but certainly not least, a fantastic birder from Canada named Jon Ruddy has dedicated an entire website to abieticola. He has worked tirelessly with Jerry Liguori to detail and document this proposed subspecies. You can even find pictures of what I believe are the same bird below in the gallery of his website from last year. If you believe you have documented an abieticola subspecies Red-tailed Hawk, please submit your pictures to Jon for archival purposes by clicking here to reach his website. I would also just love to see and help you determine if you have an abieticola as well. Feel free to send me any and all pics of abieticolas you believe you may have. With enough documentation and research, this may become an official subspecies someday.
Rick BacherI like murderous birds and the things they kill. Archives
August 2015
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