Obfuscated Locations

If you click on “Details” under the map it will tell you why the observation is obscured. Sometimes it is automated based on the conservation status, sometimes it is just because the poster decided to obscure the observation for whatever reason. In this case it is based on the conservation status (according to NatureServe the breeding population is imperiled in Texas). That doesn’t mean they need to be obscured though; I’m guessing most observations in Texas are of migrants or wintering birds, and the breeding population isn’t particularly threatened by targeted disturbance?

There have been a bunch of cases like this recently where bird species are obscured in a lot of states where they don’t really need to be (for example Cooper’s Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk, some discussion here). You can flag the taxon page if you think a species shouldn’t be obscured in a place where it is, or vice versa. I’m guessing this is affecting other hawk species as well but I don’t have time at the moment to check all their geoprivacy statuses.