9 January 2025
There were several hours of excitement on New Years Day when a snowy owl showed up at Pymatuning. That same day in Northampton County, PA Steve Magditch thought he too may have found a snowy owl but his camera lens revealed a common bird in uncommon plumage, a leucistic red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).
Brenda Lindsey was excited to capture these photos on 4 January.
Leucistic Red-tailed Hawk! I set out this morning to (maybe) see it. (I can’t believe I found it!) Thank you Steve Magditch and Kathleen Itterly Dimmich for your prior postings of this unique Bird of Prey!
— Brenda Lindsey post on Facebook, 4 January 2025
This white hawk is called leucistic, not albino, because it has normal-colored eyes and at least one normally colored feather. See the red feather(s) in its tail.
Though rare, leucistic red-tailed hawks occur throughout their range in North America with a lot of variation in their plumage. Some are spotted, some are blotchy.
See additional photos of white red-tails and learn about leucism in this vintage article.
Got one here in Berks county along the schuylkill river near Berne, Pa in Tilden township..
I saw one exactly like this yesterday (Feb. 26, 2026) in Lincolnshire, IL (north suburbs of Chicago). It even had the same reddish feather in the tail. I tried to get a photo but it flew away before I could open my camera app. We have lots of red-tailed hawks here, but I’d never seen nor heard of this. Glad I found this site–so cool!