At around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 26 February, a Red-tailed Hawk with
almost solid bellyband was perched on the southbound side of Route 13 on
Fisherman Island NWR. This bird appeared to be the same one that showed up
in December around the field just north of Sunset Beach Resort, on the west
side of Route 13 in southern Northampton County. It is has a mostly dark
throat and peach or rufous tint in breast and underwing coverts. It is also
has rather dark upperparts. This combination of features suggests strongly
that it is a bird from the boreal forest, sometimes recognized as
subspecies _abieticola_. An article on this subspecies will be published in
a coming issue of *North American Birds*. Some birds of this subspecies are
quite distinctive and readily identifiable in the field. I have only seen
one or two other birds of this sort in eastern Virginia, where we expect to
see the much more lightly marked, pale-throated subspecies _borealis_. The
bird present December through February this winter is so starkly plumaged
that it has been reported a few times in January as a Rough-legged Hawk, so
it will stand out as different, even if one sees it briefly while driving
through Fisherman Island.
Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA
