Red-tailed Hawk (Buzzard)

This is a primary flight feather from a Red-tailed Hawk, most likely an immature individual given the lack of solid rufous coloring and the presence of heavy mottling. The bird itself is a large raptor with broad, rounded wings and a short, wide tail. Adults are famous for their namesake cinnamon-red tails, while juveniles possess brown-and-white barred tails.

Mottled brown and white. The distal (tip) portion is solid dark brown, transitioning into a white base with irregular brown barred or 'marbled' splotches along the vanes. This pale, mottled pattern is typical of immature plumage.

Pennaceous throughout most of the vane with tightly interlocked barbs for flight efficiency; the base (superior umbilicus area) features plumulaceous (downy) barbs for insulation.

Smooth and stiff on the pennaceous vanes; slightly glossy on the dark pigmented areas; soft and downy at the proximal base near the calamus.

Heavy asymmetry of the vanes, creamy-white rachis, and the specific 'Buteo' mottled brown-on-white pattern which identifies it as a broad-winged soaring hawk.

Extremely versatile: found in open grasslands, agricultural fields, broken woodlands, desert scrub, and increasingly in urban parks and highway corridors.

Common year-round resident throughout most of North America, from central Alaska and Canada south through Mexico and Central America.

Apex predator and key regulator of small mammal populations (voles, mice, rabbits). They are 'generalist' predators that adapt well to human-altered landscapes.

Red-shouldered Hawk (smaller, more distinct white/black barring), Ferruginous Hawk (usually whiter on the underside), or immature Bald Eagle (much larger with darker, more uniform coloration).

The piercing, rasping 'kree-eee-ar' scream of the Red-tailed Hawk is almost universally used in Hollywood movies to represent any eagle or hawk, regardless of the species actually on screen.

Good condition; the barbs are mostly intact, though there is some minor 'zipper' separation on the trailing edge. The calamus is clean, suggesting a natural molt.