Staten Island’s wharf rats have met their match. A juvenile Swainson’s Hawk (Buteo swainsoni) was spotted Sunday on Front Street by the S.I. Railroad’s big car maintenance building. The bird was in the same area Monday, when I took these pictures.
Those long primaries! (They edge just past the tail.)
Swainson’s are a fairly common raptor west of the Mississippi. From there they typically migrate to Argentina for the non-breeding season. So this one is way off base. There have only been a handful of New York state sightings over the years.
(If you’re on ebird, you can scan the rare bird alerts to be updated, more or less, on the bird’s presence.)
Backyard and Beyond 
The Swainson’s is banded. Anybody able to read the band?
Maybe the red on the right leg is just a bit of leftover rat gore and not a band.
I thought it was left-over gore. While I was there, the bird sat calmly, but I hear it’s been feasting.
This is the best kind of news alert. Thank you so much Matthew. Happy new year to you and yours.