Maine spring edition: Immature Red-tailed Hawk??

Immature Red-tailed Hawk (I think): Arundel, Maine, USA, April 2022 — I think! This is one of those birds, or one of those birding situations, where I can not be 100% confident of my naming. I saw it fly over the road while out on my eTrike. My first impression was just a raptor with big wide wings…and then when I got off to the side of the road and got my camera out…all it would give me is this back view…and the angle of the shot, and the way the bird was perched, makes it hard to judge the body proportions and especially the length of the tail. For what it is worth, the several photo based AI birding assistants I have access to give Red-tailed Hawk about a 70% chance of being right. And Red-tailed Hawk is certainly the most likely as we have more of them than any other hawk…which is probably why I wanted it to be something else…something more exciting. Still, any perched hawk is a good bird. 🙂 And I did do my due-diligence…checked every field guide I own…and studied several of the photos I took. I have blurry shot of the underside of one wing which mostly supports Red-tailed, but that is as good as I can say. Anyone who know better, feel free to correct me. Always willing to be corrected. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed and enlarged in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

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