RED-BELLIED HAWK. Buteo lineatus elegans Cassin

Field characters.—Proportions of Red-tailed Hawk but size much smaller, though larger than Cooper Hawk. Adults have wings and tail sharply barred with black and white, and under surface of body bright reddish brown; rest of upper surface mixed dark brown, reddish brown and white. There is no white on rump nor red on tail. Wing beats rapid; course usually low over trees, though at times circling high overhead. Voice: A series of squealing high-pitched notes, ker-ker-ker-ker, repeated every few seconds.

Occurrence.—Resident in moderate numbers in river bottoms of Lower Sonoran Zone. Observed regularly at Snelling.

As one passes by train along the bottom lands of the Merced River past Snelling to Merced Falls, he may often see close at hand a medium-sized hawk with the striking color combination of a red belly and black and white wings and tail, perched on a post or dead tree. This is the Red-bellied Hawk and this is its accustomed haunt, the willow bottoms. We found it nowhere else in the whole region. Its shrill call is not so high in pitch as that of the Sparrow Hawk, yet it is sharper, shorter, and more insistent than that of the Red-tail. When the Red-bellied Hawk takes wing the observer is able to see plainly the black and white barring of its wings and tail, and to note the rapid wing beats and low direct course of flight off over the fields, so different from the heavier flight and more frequent soaring of its larger relative.