What Is It? (Round 3)

Okay, I'll confess that Round 2 may have been a bit challenging. However, Gloria and Roberto both correctly identified the pair of Double-Crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus). I let it slide this time, but from now on it's your most recent answer that counts when I tally up the score at the end. Interestingly enough, there actually was a Neotropic Cormorant at Horicon while I was there a few years back, but these two are too big and not skinny enough to be the Neotropic (plus, there was only one Neotropic there).

No one correctly identified the third bird, but this one was especially hard for a number of reasons:
1: The photo doesn't show all that much detail
2: The bird is a juvenile.
3: It is a migratory raptor, and thus some range maps don't show it inhabiting Wisconsin
4: There are three different subspecies of this bird in the US, and they don't all look the same,
     4.5: and this guy/gal is not of the most common subspecies.

We had some guesses of Northern Harrier, which isn't half bad since this bird's color, speckling, and banded tail match that of a female Circus cyaneus. It's in the right habitat and location, too. It's even the right size. But it's not a harrier. I'll walk you through the identification:
Everyone seemed to get that it was a bird of prey based on its size and shape. After that, the most important identification feature of this bird is the face. Notice the really dark vertical stripe below the eye and the large white patch behind it. Harriers don't have facial patters as bold as that. That area of dark feathers is called a malar or moustachial stripe. This feature rules out all of the North American raptors except for falcons. Based on its size (approximated by comparing it to the cormorants) it has to be either Prairie, Peregrine, or Gyrfalcon. A gyr would be too dark and would not show up in Wisconsin unless it was a really bad winter and there wasn't enough food up north. This bird's color points towards Prairie Falcon... BUT WAIT!
The malar stripe is too large and dark for Prairie Falcon. And what would it be doing in the middle of a huge marsh? They eat mainly ground squirrels--which you aren't likely to find swimming. Horicon Marsh has lots and lots of waterfowl, which are perfect food for...
Peregrine Falcons!
Yup, this bird belongs to the fastest species on the planet. To be specific, this is a juvenile of the subspecies Falco peregrinus tundrius who was migrating south for the winter and happened to stop by in Wisconsin.

Okay, after all that... We move on to Round Three!!!

Photo by the author.

It's two species again, but this time you only have until October 15th to identify both... so start now!
This pair was spending their Spring Break in a tidal marsh in South Padre Island, TX. Once again, you can use "view image" to see it full size.

Have fun!