Rough-legged Hawk
January 17, 2014
Rough-legged Hawk
Buteo lagopus
Contributed by Sean Graesser, conservation technician in Connecticut Audubon Society’s Conservation Services program.
With Snowy Owls being the hot button topic right now, I thought another uncommon northern visitor – Rough-legged Hawk – might be a good subject.
Where to find it: When this species leaves its tundra breeding grounds it looks for areas with the most abundant food source. In Connecticut this mean marshes and open field areas. Right now one of the best sites to see Rough-legged Hawks seems to be Short Beach in Stratford, where they have been spotted for the last two months. Another reliable location is just down the road at the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge’s Stratford Great Meadows unit. Rough-legged Hawks have also been spotted at Hammonasset Beach State Park with some regularity as well. Other known locations to see this species are at the mouth of the Connecticut River at Great Island. If you can’t make it down to coastal locations a great inland location is at Rocky Hill Meadows.
How to find it: Once you are in a prime location – an open area with a lot of land on which the hawks can hunt – look to the largest trees or perches, which give an optimal view. If no birds are on hunting perches, look to the sky above the open area. Rough-legged Hawk is the only Buteo, and one of the only raptors, that will hover in the air while hunting – one of the easiest ways to readily identify this species. If you see a larger-size raptor hovering over an open area you are most likely looking at a Rough-legged Hawk. The only other species that could be confused with Rough-legged Hawk would be Osprey, but with the Osprey’s overall white appearance the two are easily distinguishable and Ospreys do not spend the winter in our area.
What it looks like: Rough-legged Hawks are a bit on the variable side. Generally these birds have an overall brown appearance with a smattering of speckling, but there are two color morphs – light and dark.
Light morph birds in flight are easily identifiable by two dark patches under the wing near the end of the under-wing coverts. Light morph individuals also usually have a brown breast spotted with white and a solid brown breast band. Light morph birds also have a light head, which contrasts with the darker breast band.
In dark morph individuals, the breast and breast band are completely dark, as are the under-wing patches and the head.
For both morphs, the upper part of the tail is white and the lower half is finely banded. A definitive field mark is that this is the only Buteo to have feathers all the way down to its talons. This is an adaptive trait to deal with its cold breeding environment in the tundra. So if you see a raptor perched and can get a good look at the legs, take that into consideration.
What if the bird isn’t there: If you have trouble finding a Rough-legged Hawk, no worries – you are still in a location with a plethora of other great species to see. If you haven’t done so yet, look for Snowy Owls (Bubo scandiacus); Snowies are found in similar habitats due to the fact they come from the same breeding areas. Other wintering visitors that can also be seen at many of the same locations include Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris), Lapland Longspur (Calcarius lapponicus), Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) and American Pipit (Anthus rubescens). If you are near a coastal location this is also a great time of year to look at wintering ducks.
Conservation status: IUCN Least Concern.
To sign up to receive Connecticut Bird Finder via email, send your name and town to tandersen@ctaudubon.org.Photos taken January 13, 2014, at Short Beach by Don Morgan.
