An Unusual Adult Broad-winged Hawk Tail Pattern
On September 17, 2022, I was at a hawk watching field trip for Lycoming Audubon Society at the Route 15 Overlook near South Williamsport, PA. We had 180 Broad-winged Hawks in about 2 hours, and had many close looks as the birds lifted out the trees along the mountain and started their migration as the fog burned off.
Among the birds, I noticed an adult Broad-wing with an abnormal tail pattern. The inner tail feathers look pretty normal for adults, but the outer feathers look more like what juvenile birds have.
Adult Broad-winged Hawk with an unusual tail pattern © Bobby Brown
This doesn't seem to be a case of retained juvenile feathers, as you can sometimes see on raptors, and there's no apparent molt happening on this individual. It seems like this is just the "normal" tail pattern this bird has. The Pyle guide does reference second and third year birds possibly showing feathers with an intermediate pattern between the typical juvenile and adult pattern, but I'm not sure if that would fit in with showing exclusively in the outer rectrices, while the inner ones show a typical adult pattern.
I've asked a few people with extensive raptor experience, and no one remembers seeing any examples of an adult Broad-winged Hawk quite like this.
Here's a comparison of the unusual bird (middle) with a typical adult (bottom) and juvenile (top) tail pattern, all taken during the same session.
The unusual adult Broad-winged Hawk (middle) compared with a typical adult (bottom) and juvenile (top) tail pattern © Bobby Brown
In the end, I don't have a definitive answer as to why this bird is like this, so we'll have to leave it a mystery for the time being, but I did feel that it would be good to document it so that others can be on the lookout for this variation, and I will come back and update this article if I come across any information or photos of similar birds in the future. And if you know anything about this variation in adult Broad-wings, feel free to reach out to me.
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