Short-tailed Hawks! So cool!

We've seen two different Short-tailed Hawks in the last several days here on Sanibel, FL. Lucky us! The light morph was over J.N. Ding Darling NWR and we saw the dark morph over the Pond Apple Ponds. Short-tailed Hawk, is a sought-after Florida speciality for birders and not easy to see. This bird breeds primarily in southern and central Florida and a little in southern AZ and south TX. 

The Short-tailed Hawk comes in two morphs, a light morph, shown here, and a dark morph. Dark-morphs are dark below with blackish brown body and wing coverts, paler flight feathers and tail, and dark trailing edge to wings. Short-tailed Hawks mostly soar and may hang in one spot for a time. We almost always see them in flight when we encounter them.