It is difficult to say which bird John James Audubon drew for Plate 71 of the first edition of Birds of America since it seems he did not know for sure what the bird was. The Winter Hawk vanishes from the later octavo edition except for Audubon mentioning in his notes for the Red-shouldered hawk (Plate 56) that the “Winter Falcon” makes “its appearance from the north, at the approach of every autumn.” It is almost as if Audubon finally determined that the Winter Hawk was an immature Red-shouldered hawk but forgot to make the correction in his notes.
Plate 71 – Winter Hawk
Plate 71 of the first edition of "Birds of America" by John James Audubon.