Author Archives: Bryce W. Robinson

A few weeks ago, Bryce had the pleasure of presenting the project on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birds of the World Webinar. Take a look at how Bryce frames the work we are doing, and the updates he shares on what we’ve discovered so far!

We’re currently celebrating some success from last years transmitter effort. Two of the dark birds we tagged, one that Nicole and Bryce caught in Ontario and one that Nick caught in Michigan, have returned for the winter and provided us with an insight into where they spent the summer. Both individuals spent their summer almostContinue reading “Dark morphs breed in the eastern boreal forests of Canada”

We are fortunate that three of our birds have settled in summer locations that are in range of a cellular tower, so we are receiving regular updates on their movements. Two of these individuals took an exciting spring migratory route that we haven’t seen until now. Sefi and Ja’Marr moved along the coast of BritishContinue reading “Comparing plumage, movement, and summer locations in three dark morphs”

Last month, Bryce caught this stunning dark bird just north of Lawrence, Kansas and discovered that it was already banded. After reporting the band and asking around, he learned that the individual had been captured and banded near Grand Prairie, Alberta in May 2015 by Sylvain Bourdages, an active raptor bander and friend of theContinue reading “A band recovery connecting eastern Kansas to Grand Prairie, Alberta”

Luke and Bryce recently captured this amazing juvenile Rough-legged x Red-tailed Hawk hybrid in eastern Kansas. Here is our breakdown of the identification – Note the multiple Rough-legged Hawk traits such as head coloration and pattern, including pale auriculars; subtle carpal patch; buffy base coloration to breast and underwing; pale and unpatterned base to flightContinue reading “A juvenile hybrid Red-tailed X Rough-legged Hawk captured in eastern Kansas”

One of the research goals of the Red-tailed Hawk Project is to better understand the “Krider’s” Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis kriderii). There has long been debate about the validity of this currently recognized subspecies, because of its variability and that it breeds alongside (and with) birds we consider as the subspecies borealis. The two mostContinue reading “An attempt to better understand the Krider’s Red-tailed Hawk (B. j. kriderii)”

Over the weekend, Neil Paprocki caught and outfitted this light morph harlani with a GPS/GSM transmitter in Northern Idaho. The members of our group decided that this harlani, the first bird to be tagged for the winter 2021/2022 field season, is to be named “Liggy” in honor of our mentor and friend Jerry Liguori. “Liggy”Continue reading ““Liggy” the light morph harlani”

In October, Bryce had the privilege of visiting the Cedar Grove Ornithological Research Station (CGORS), a long-term fall migration monitoring station along the shore of Lake Michigan in central Wisconsin. Each year, strong winds from the west cause a large number of migrants to build up along the shore as they move south. CGORS isContinue reading “Four birds join the project, in collaboration with Cedar Grove Ornithological Research Station”

Most of our birds are back on the grid as they finish their fall migration. As a result, we have breeding locations to share – perhaps the most exciting of which are the dark putative ‘non-harlani‘ birds. Below are the breeding locations for the remainder of our tagged harlani, as well as individuals we taggedContinue reading “Dark morphs tagged in Kansas breed in sympatry with harlani”