I have been seeing, and hearing about other people seeing, members of the the Red-shouldered League all fall. This is unprecedented. Usually, Red-shouldered Hawks (Buteo lineatus) pass over during migration periods. I’ve never seen them consistently here in Brooklyn through the fall and now winter.
This youngster was perched on Monday in Green-Wood. (Does this strike you as a bit Accipiter-y? It does me, but note the shortness of the tail.)
The red chest and red shoulders comes with age. But this one shows a touch of the underwing, and the stripes on the tail.
The distinctive “windows” near the primary (fingertip) feathers can be see in these images of a youngster from early in December.
A few days before that, this adult shows off the red shoulders and the strong white-stripe effect of the tail.
On December 18, I saw a trio of them from the apartment.
BREAKING: Raptor News — A pair of American Kestrels were seen yesterday on the solar building. They spent about twenty minutes together. The female was heard later in the morning, vocally announcing her presence, and they again perched near each other on the roof pipes up there. So it begins? The fourth year of local breeding?
Backyard and Beyond 
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