Posted at the request of John Blakeman. Interesting follow-up about the leucistic Red-tail Hawk and a request for 'Citizen Science'. If you are a photographer John would like more photographs of this hawk (in the CVNRA) to identify eye color. Regards, Adam & Matt Valencic Chagrin Falls, OH _____ From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2008 10:44 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [Ohio-birds] FW: [Ohio-birds] Light colored hawk (Zebra Hawk!) CVNRA Adam, Please post this, if you might. I just examined a full-density copy of the photo of the zebra red-tail, and discovered the following. First, there is no doubt that a portion of one of the retrices (tail feather) is fully and typically red. This means that the bird is at least in its second year. As everyone knows, red-tails don't get red tails until they've molted away the brown tail feathers they left the nest with. By now, late September, virtually all red-tails have completed the molt of their tail feathers. Close examination of some birds in September will reveal that two or four tail feathers are still "in the blood" and descending to full length. But the brown first-year tail feathers will all have been lost. More important with this bird is the hint in one silhouette photograph is the bird's iris color. Instead of the dark brown iris of a red-tail in its third or older year, I detect a lighter hue, suggesting that the bird is in it's second year. If the bird has a yellow iris -- and I'd strongly ask observers of the hawk to see and report if this is so -- this will tend to authenticate my contention that leucistic red-tails are probably normally colored in their first or second years, with the feathers become less pigmented with each ensuing molt. Again, I know of no photos of leucistic red-tails with this curious, half-white, half-dark color pigmentation. This may well be a bird right in the middle of transformation from normal color to the much more, mostly white pigmentation of typical leucistic red-tails. If it has a light-colored iris, instead of the dark brown iris of older birds, this could be one of the only birds observed in transition at this young age. Does leucisticism appear in young red-tails, or, does it appear at age, in the manner of gray hair in humans? I've always presumed the latter. If this bird has a yellow iris, indicating that it's a young adult, the trait appears much earlier. I hope birders in the CVNRA can keep track of this interesting hawk. And then, it will be interesting to see if it mates this winter and begins to breed with copulation and a nest in February and March. I'd also like to learn of the bird's sex. It appears that most leucistic birds are females. Back in the early 70s, I watched a female leucistic red-tail nest and produce a single tiercel (male) eyass, which was normally colored. We banded the eyass and returned it to the nest in Sandusky County, west of Fremont. I had numerous reports of locals taking shots at the bird, so with my scientific collecting permit I trapped it in August of the following year. We kept it for a full year at Bowling Green State University, where we wanted to notice its molting pattern. Curiously, a tail feather that was entirely white when trapped was replaced with a feather partially red. This pigmentation variability was noted in a few other feathers. Finally, the bird was released in a state to the west, where it was much less likely to be shot. Fortunately, very few red-tails are being shot by poachers any more. Because red-tails are very seldom shot or illegally trapped in recent years, they have now saturated all available good nesting habitats. Consequently, first-year mortality of red-tails is now very high, probably approaching 80% or more. And while I'm running on here, let me state that it's so unfortunate that Christmas Bird Counts and other similar population surveys have failed to tally adults and immatures. I believe that today there are far fewer numbers of late summer immature red-tails in Ohio. With habitat saturation by old adults, rising immatures tend to starve in July and August. Today, it's tough to be an inexperienced immature red-tail. It would be helpful to have adult to immature ratios from previous decades, or even now. Just why hasn't such helpful and obvious data been collected? Age ratio data should also be accurately collected and recorded for the bald eagle. Sooner or later it's going to run into the same problem young red-tails have. Eventually, the multitudes of fledged bald eagles will fail to find un-occupied territories or habitats, after the state becomes saturated with territorial adults. Of course, bald eagles are quasi-social, and unmated immatures can hang about in large winter gangs. But just what will be the fate of Ohio bald eagles when the state can no longer support any more immatures? Plotting annual adult to immature ratio changes of both red-tails and bald eagles could really help predict where things might end up at territorial saturation. With red-tails, I think we're there. An unmated young red-tail now has no open place to live a normal red-tail life. Someday, that will be the case with bald eagles, too. Watching the age-ratio changes from year to year would be helpful to accurately characterize this modern conservation success. Sincerely, John A. Blakeman [log in to unmask] _____ Looking for simple solutions to your real-life financial challenges? 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