Buteo albonotatus
Status: Accidental in spring.
Documentation: Description: Lake Ogallala, Keith Co, 25 Apr 2007 (Brogie 2008).
Taxonomy: No subspecies recognized.
Record: One was discovered by Charles Brown, Valerie O’Brien, and Sarah Knutie roosting with six Turkey Vultures at Lake Ogallala 25 Apr 2007 (Brogie 2008). It was watched both in flight with the vultures and perched; a discernable photo is included with this account. It could not be re-located 28 Apr (Mark Brogie, personal communication). Intriguingly, one roosted for a night at Jumbo Reservoir, northeast Colorado, about 60 miles from Keith Co, Nebraska, in late Apr 2007 (Gary Zeeto, personal communication); it may have been the same bird that appeared in Nebraska.
Comments: The nearest regular range is northeastern New Mexico, where it is migratory, arriving in spring in Mar (Johnson et al 2020). The Nebraska record is the northernmost for the species, and most records north and east of New Mexico are restricted to the western Great Plains and appear to be spring overshoot migrants (eBird.org, accessed Oct 2023) although, rather amazingly, birds summered and bred in the Wichita Mountains area of Oklahoma in 2021, 2022, and 2023. There are no other records for Oklahoma and none for Kansas, Iowa, or Missouri. On the western Great Plains, there is one Texas Panhandle record for Mar, and in Colorado there are about 16 records, nine of these in Mar-May, and seven in Jul-Sep (CBRC, eBird.org, accessed Oct 2023). Zone-tailed Hawk is generally not prone to wandering, although it has occurred in Louisiana and even Nova Scotia (Johnson et al 2020).
Images
Literature Cited
Brogie, M.A. 2008. 2007 (19th) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 76: 111-119.
Johnson, R.R., R.L. Glinski, and S.W. Matteson. 2020. Zone-tailed Hawk (Buteo albonotatus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.zothaw.01.
Recommended Citation
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2023. Zone-tailed Hawk (Buteo albonotatus). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org
Birds of Nebraska – Online
Updated 26 Oct 2023