Dark Harley

So my last post concerned a light-morph Harlan's Hawk, and for contrast I now give you the more expected dark-morph. I blew by this bird as I was heading to a CFO board meeting, but I figured the rest of the board would understand if I turned around and tried for some pics. The hawk was quite cooperative, posing nicely and then flying into the wind only as far as the next power pole, giving me a few rounds of flight photography. Yeah, I was late for the meeting (sorry, buddies), but it was so worth it...

This guy is on the dark end of things, but still has a little white streaking in the breast , belly, and crown. Dark calurus (western) Red-tails are just dark- no white streaking like that. Plus calurus 'tails have red tails, at least on the upper surface, unlike this Harlan's classic speckled white job with the subterminal dark band. Snazzy.