Short-tailed Hawk (Buteo brachyurus), Barfoot Park, Cochise County

Short-tailed Hawk is a recent addition to the Arizona avifauna. In spring of 1999 there were several sight reports from the Onion Saddle area of the Chiricahua Mts. In July 1999, the first photographic evidence of Short-tailed Hawks in Arizona was obtained in Miller Canyon in the Huachuca Mts. (Prior to that, there had been several accepted sight records from the Huachuca and Chiricahua Mts. dating back to 1985.) Since then, they have been reported intermittently in the Huachucas and documented nearly annually in the Chiricahuas. The documentation of juveniles in the Chiricahuas suggests that nesting has occurred there. These photos of a light morph Short-tailed Hawk over Barfoot Park in the Chiricahuas were taken by Robert Shantz on 3 July 2004.

Photographed by Robert Shantz on 3 July 2004