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Melanistic juvenile (likely male based on size relative to the Great-tailed Grackle it was feeding upon). Verified by William Clark, and Lance and Jill Morrow. First observed by M. Silvas with me, and I shouted "melanistic Cooper's Hawk, OMG" as I identified the bird preliminarily, before submitting it to experts for review.
N31.070728 W-97.369269
JPK-2925

The photo is of a Violet-green Swallow in a nest box with 5 Western Bluebird nestlings. The Violet-green Swallows have returned after migrating and are looking for cavities to nest in. The swallows won't harm the nestlings, and there are reports of swallows actually assisting in feeding the nestlings.

Violet-green Swallows and Ash-throated Flycatchers are the late nesters and often have to use whatever cavities are available. I've been finding both Tree and Violet-green Swallow nest starts in boxes from which other species have fledged and before I had a chance to clean the used nest out.

This is another example of the competition among birds that occurs for cavities to nest in. I added another nest box nearby in hopes that the swallows will use it.

Here's the swallow observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/79034267

📸: By Lee Pauser

This observation was part of a nest box trail done in conjunction with the California Bluebird Recovery Program (CBRP), which runs the Cavity Nesters Recovery Program (CNRP). CNRP involves many volunteers across California who establish and monitor nest box trails for cavity-nesting birds. During the breeding season, these boxes are checked weekly for parasitism, predation, number of eggs, nestlings, and number of young fledged. Then at the end of the nesting season, volunteers submit their results to CBRP. We compile these results and submit them to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch program and other interested organizations.

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.