Raptor Banding in the Rio Grande Valley: Winter 2011-2012 by William S
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Raptor Banding In The Rio Grande Valley: Winter 2011-2012 By William S. (Bill) Clark domestic mice as lures. Raptors were caught Photos by Author. either in sugar cane fields that have recently I have been banding raptors in the Rio been harvested or from perches along sides Grande Valley (RGV) since I moved here in of roads. A full set of measurements were 2002. Most of my banding activity has been taken on each raptor: wing chord, body mass, in the winter, but I have captured and banded culmen, hallux, and tail length. Photographs raptors in every month. I captured more rap- of many were taken with one wing extended tors last winter than during any previous win- from front and back. ter. Herein I will describe the raptors caught My studies. I am doing a study of the by species as to age, sex (if applicable), and molts and plumages of White-tailed Hawk. subspecies and describe some unusual ones, as They are unique among Buteos in that they well as some others caught in previous years. do not reach adult plumage for three or four I caught a total of 347 raptors from No- years, not one year as in most other Buteos. vember 12, 2011 to March 11, 2012 during One study is on the plumages of each age 21 full days and 4 partial days of active band- class as determined by the molt of the remiges ing. The totals by species, subspecies, age, and rectrices, and another study, with coau- and sex are shown in Table 1. I theorize that thors, will present differences in plumages by the reason for the greater number of raptors sex, based on sexing by DNA. I am doing a caught is that there seemed to be more raptors similar plumage and molt study of Harris’s here last winter, most likely because of the Hawk. All of these studies are based on data extreme drought in most of Texas north of from captured raptors. here, where they would presumably winter in I am also studying Harlan’s Hawk, but few normal years. of these occur in the Rio Grande Valley, and Raptors were captured using Bal-Chatri this study is conducted elsewhere. I am trying traps, most often with house sparrows and to characterize the many differences between Table 1. Number of raptors captured by species, age, sex, and subspecies Winter 2011-2012. Cooper’s Hawks: 10, 5 adults and 5 juveniles. Harris’s Hawks: 39, 23 adults (14 males and 9 females) 16 juveniles (5 males and 11 females) Red-shouldered Hawks: 35, 21 adults (2 east. & 19 texanus) 13 juveniles (2 east. & 11 texanus) Swainson’s Hawks: 2, both juveniles White-tailed Hawks: 125, 24 adults (12 of each sex) 4 Basic III (3 males & 1 female) 17 Basic II (10 males & 7 females) 80 juveniles (40 of each sex) Red-tailed Hawks: 85, 26 adults (14 west, 8 east, 3 Fuertes, 1 Kriders, & 3 undetermined) 13 Basic II (4 west, 7 east, and 2 undetermined) 47 juveniles (1 west (rufous morph) & 46 east (incl. Fuertes & Kriders)) American Kestrels: 51, 31 adults (15 males & 16 females) 20 juveniles (11 males & 7 females) & 2 unknown age females 6 TEXAS BIRDS ANNUAL 2012 VOLUME 8 7 Harlan’s and Red-tailed Hawks. Surprisingly, there has been no good taxonomic ratio- nale published to justify including Harlan’s Hawk as a subspecies of Red-tail. You can read four draft presentations on my prelimi- nary findings at this web site: http://www. globalraptors.org/grin/ResearcherResults. asp?lresID=155 The first four paragraphs are results of my Harlan’s Hawk studies and can be down- loaded as pdfs. Recaptures. Two raptors captured last winter were already banded. One was a Basic III (third plumage) female White-tailed Hawk that I banded two years previously as a juvenile; it was caught not far from the original banding site. It is shown in Fig. 1. Its wing chord was about the same both times, but its body mass, culmen, and hallux had all increased. It was in the proper plumage for a hawk of this age, with the expected molt pat- Fig. 2. Adult Red-tailed Hawk captured tern. The other already banded raptor was an because its talons were stuck in the mesh adult female kestrel that Mark Conway had of the trap. banded six years earlier in almost the exact same place. I correctly aged it as an adult. and one each was a White-tail and a Red-tail, Unusual capture. An adult Red-tailed a White-tail and a Kestrel, and two Harris’s. Hawk caught its talons in the mesh of the In previous years, I have caught three raptors trap. It had no nooses holding it. This is on numerous occasions and three times have shown in Figure 2. caught four raptors at the same time: twice Multiple captures. Two raptors were four White-tails and once four Harris’s. caught together on the same trap sixteen times. Molt. A Basic II Red-tail had skipped over Twelve cases were of two White-tails together, P4 in its primary molt on the left wing. The retained P4 was juvenile. A juvenile Harris’s in molt had replaced P1 on both wings but also P3 on the left wing, skipping over P2 is shown in Fig. 3. Five adult hawks showed four waves of pri- mary molt: three White-tails and two Red-tails. Full crops. Many captured raptors had full or half full crops. Fig. 4 is a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk with a full crop. I theorize that although the crop was full, the stomach was still empty and that the raptors were still Fig. 1. Basic III White-tailed Hawk hungry and actively hunting. recaptured. This hawk was banded by me Diseases. A juvenile White-tailed Hawk two years previously as a juvenile. had a crossed beak (Fig. 5). This is a type of 6 TEXAS BIRDS ANNUAL 2012 VOLUME 8 7 Red-shoulder had a broken-off beak tip (Fig. 6). This is another variation of the long-bill syndrome. Another juvenile Red-shoulder had pox around its eyes (Fig. 7). A juvenile Red-tail had pox on its foot. Cooper’s Hawk. Cooper’s Hawks are only occasionally seen along the RGV roads, and the three captured last winter was about normal. But last winter I caught seven in my Fig. 3. Juvenile Harris’s Hawk in molt. back yard, which is a record. I have banded Primary two was abnormally skipped over. 26 from 2002 through last summer, with a maximum of five in any one year. Harris’s Hawk. Some of the Harris’s Hawks caught had unusual plumages. One adult female was a partial albino, with some white feathers on the belly, leg feathers, and the under wing coverts (Fig. 8). Another had an unusual tail with odd white banding. In Fig. 4. Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk. One of many raptors caught with a full crop. ‘long-bill syndrome’ seen on many Red-tailed Hawks in the Pacific Northwest, in which the beak continues to grow and becomes abnormal in structure and color. A juvenile Fig. 6. Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk with broken tip of beak. Another type of abnormal beak resulting from the ‘Long- billed syndrome,’ with the abnormally long and weakened tip broken off. Fig. 5. Juvenile White-tailed Hawk with crossed beak. One type of abnormal beak resulting from the ‘Long-billed syndrome’ when the beak continues to grow and Fig. 7. Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk. It becomes abnormal in structure and color. has pox around its eyes. 8 TEXAS BIRDS ANNUAL 2012 VOLUME 8 9 previous years, I caught a dilute-plumage adult. My previous high annual banding total was 40, just about the same as the 39 caught last winter. I had banded 258 Harris’s from 2002 through last summer. Red-shouldered Hawk. The number of this species in the RGV last winter was much higher than in previous winters. The total of 35 banded was much greater than the overall total banded from 2002 until last summer of 14. The maximum captured in any previous Fig. 9. Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk. year was only five. Typical texanus. Fig. 10. Swainson’s Hawk juvenile (right) with juvenile White-tailed Hawk (left). Swainson’s Hawk. I caught two Swain- son’s Hawks last winter, both juveniles. They occur regularly in winter in the RGV. A pic of one in hand with a juvenile White-tail is shown in Fig. 10. I usually see them in winter associating with flocks of White-tails, almost always at sugar cane fields that have just been harvested. I have captured between Fig. 8. Adult female Harris’s Hawk. Partial one and three of this species every winter. A albino with some white feathers. dark morph in Basic II plumage caught sev- eral years ago is shown in Fig. 11. All winter Red-shouldered Hawk adults usually com- captures were in sugar cane fields. plete their remige molt every year, but I caught two adults that had not replaced all of their primaries. One had both adult primaries P10 (outer) old and the other had both juvenile P10 old. The first adult also had old adult feathers on Secondary S9 right and tail feather T3 left. Most of the Red-shouldereds captured were the subspecies texanus or intergrades with nominate. Fig. 9 is a typical juvenile texanus with underparts marked with blobs rather than Fig. 11. Basic II dark-morph Swainson’s the streaks shown my nominate juveniles.