Can you flag to add probable taxons?

General
1

On October 20, 2018, I got a photo of a very strange-looking Red-tailed Hawk. I thought immediately after looking at the features of the bird that it was an Eastern Red-tailed Hawk. After about two months of discussion with raptor experts, Jerry Ligouri and Brian Sullivan, it was determined that my hawk was a probable intergrade Western (calurus) x Eastern (borealis) Red-tailed Hawk. That’s part of the reason I haven’t submitted it to iNat yet. So here’s my question. Can I flag the Red-tailed Hawk so a curator can add the taxon for the intergrade or since it’s ‘probable’, it’s not scientific accurate or whatever?

Link to my sighting on the Macaulay Library (other photos if you scroll down) – https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/119765151#_ga=2.2476594.388266957.1565842111-1175263981.1555651889

2

Flagging would be your best option. And then it will be up to the bird curators to decide whether to add a hybrid taxon or not. They would be guided by this section of the Curator Guide.

Meanwhile I would suggest that you go ahead and add your observation to iNaturalist at the species level (Buteo jamaicensis), with appropriate description and/or comment indicating its apparent hybrid status (and the sources of that conclusion). Then you can provide a link to your observation in the comments section of your flag, so that the curators (and everyone) can see what you are dealing with.

3

Closing this topic, since it is now being addressed in this flag:
https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/396966

Thank you @birdwhisperer!

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