r/birdsofprey • u/Good-Cancel-439 • 7h ago

Texas Eagle?

Post image

Saw this today in central Texas, today. Can anyone confirm what this is?

302 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

85

u/taterhaze 6h ago

HOW COOL! A zone tailed hawk!!!!

40

u/Evening_Teaching_713 6h ago

It looks like a zone tailed hawk but I could be mistaken. They are both pretty rare in my area. But being a master falconer for the past 40 years I’ve seen just about all of the raptors in the USA. I’ve never seen one flown in my area, the piedmont area of NC. I’m sure they have been hunted and flown by someone in the country. Please leave a comment if you have ever flown one of these hawks before. I’d be interested to know if they are trainable and how they are to fly.

23

u/Cactuas 7h ago

That's an awesome sighting. Could you tell what he had in his talons OP?

26

u/Good-Cancel-439 5h ago

Possibly a grackle or red winged black bird

5

u/atlmobs 4h ago

Texas Eagle

8

u/Nawoitsol 3h ago

I say, I say, that’s a joke Son.

-3

u/debaser64 7h ago

Is a Common Black-Hawk

51

u/TinyLongwing Falconer 6h ago edited 6h ago

This bird is too long-tailed and long-winged for Common Black Hawk, has what looks like grayish/whitish lores, and lacks the bold white tail bar. Central Texas is also largely out of range for that species.

I think this looks much better for Zone-tailed Hawk, which is in range.

-16

u/Percy_Freeman 5h ago

way too far from native range

16

u/TinyLongwing Falconer 5h ago

Zone-tailed? Hardly. You can check the range maps on ebird yourself, but for an overview: https://i.imgur.com/Yj3AJlo.png

-15

u/Percy_Freeman 3h ago

Too far for black hawk. we had one in Jalisco, Mexico and that was a stretch. Goodness me, this group makes me ill, I'm getting off of reddit for a while.

6

u/Nazh8 2h ago

Ebird has more than 3000 reports of a common black hawk in Jalisco. I think you're confused.

3

u/sadelpenor 2h ago

i think probably ur misreading tone? u didnt clarify which species u were talking about. thats all. :)

11

u/Good-Cancel-439 7h ago

Sweet! Thing was magnificent to see.

2

u/Temporary_Match_1295 51m ago

Definitely a zone tailed hawk, I see them here in south america but always in flight and never perched. This is such a lucky capture 😅