Captured with federal permits and landowner permission. Bird was released unharmed after processing. Flew to nearby tree where it camouflaged perfectly, I would have walked by hundreds of times before seeing it. Incredible bird.

Taken at Leona Turnbull Birding Center on an extremely windy morning in Port Aransas, TX, Nueces County.

I was excited to see for myself the strange-looking juvenile heron that has been photographed here several times over the last month or two. Its plumage most closely matches a juvenile night-heron, but differences include yellow eyes, a longer bill, rusty brown in the wings, and partially dark legs and feet. It seems to walk around more and be more diurnally active than the other juvenile and adult Black-crowned Night-Herons in the surrounding reeds. This bird is currently thought to be a hybrid between one of the night-herons and a Tricolored Heron, but this is just a guess.

I hope it hangs around long enough for us to see what its adult plumage looks like!

In the field our group passed this off as a Rough-legged hawk. Indeed, the overall the impression of the bird is that of a Rough-legged Hawk, with some notable deviations that mark this bird as a hybrid. Many of the features resemble a typical Rough-legged (small bill, thick dark belly band, dark carpal patches, extensive white at the base of the tail), while the evenly spaced dark tail bands are reminiscent of a Red-tailed Hawk. The tail is also quite long, going past the primary extension. This overall mix of traits of both Rough-legged and Red-tailed Hawks has lead me to the conclusion that this bird is a hybrid.

Confirmed by Nick Kiehl, Jerry Liguori, Neil Paprocki, and others.

I believe this is the first of its kind ever reported. Both Ebird and inaturalist do not have a taxonomical category for this hybrid. I have lots more photos of this individual and hopefully someone will forward this to the right person to get a category established.