Light morph Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis) adult and juvenile. Gouache paintings on watercolor board. Image copyright Bryce W. Robinson.

In my continued practice at illustration and the design of guide book style plates, I took the opportunity of expanding a needed Ferruginous Hawk illustration into a full plate. I focused on a goal to illustrate light morph adult and juveniles perched and in flight, both topside and underside. I’m currently emulating the traditional plate styles you see in contemporary guides, but as I’ve been illustrating I’ve had some ideas that I may try going forward as I attempt to tune in my illustrations.

For polymorphic species such as the Ferruginous Hawk, illustrating the entire spectrum of plumage types is entirely unreasonable if not impossible. Still, I think there are some plumage types that may deserve attention, apart from the classic rusty bodied birds and dark morphs. I’ve seen some interesting individuals, such as dark birds with white streaking on the breast that is reminiscent of dark morph Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk. I think including these in an informative plate will communicate two things, one being of course some of the stranger possible plumage types but perhaps more importantly the pitfalls of focusing solely on plumage characteristics for identification.

I’ve produced prints of this illustration for purchase, but I’ve limited them to 25. You can find and purchase a print in the shop by clicking here.