Lately I have been noticing Red-tailed Hawks (RTHAs) around that
look different from the usual.

I first saw one of these very dark-backed hawks at Brown Road in
Union Mills (Carroll County) about 2 weeks ago, and then again on
Saturday in northwest Worcester County -
It had a sparse and light belly-band, leading me to believe it
was an older RTHA.
It had a dark tail (viewed from above), suggesting an immature
RTHA that had not yet developed a rufous tail.
It had very light underwings, breast and belly, so it was not a
dark morph RTHA.
It had clear black arcs at the base of the primaries.
Head and back were so dark that they did not look brown, but more
dark gray; no white V was visible on the back.

Don't recall if it had patagial markings, or what the undertail
looked like.

My best estimate of these RTHAs is that they may be the Florida
subspecies (described in Wheeler's Raptors of Eastern North
America), Buteo jamaicensis umbrinus.  Adults of these FL-RTHAs
have dark rufous tails that may have black banding ("narrow or
wide black subterminal band or partial or full dark inner tail
banding") that might obscure the rufous look of the tail in
adults.

If these are from FL, they must be storm-driven.

Any similar observations?

Bill Ellis
Eldersburg
Carroll County Bird Club
billellis at ellislist dot com