A Different Red-Tailed Hawk

The other day while driving down to the south end of the island I noticed a hawk sitting on a telephone pole near a farm where I've been seeing some hawks pretty regularly. I did a U-Turn and it stayed perched long enough for me to snap some photos from the car. Then a loud truck came by the other direction and it decided enough was enough, and took flight, all while my camera was snapping of course.

When I saw it, I thought it was a red-tailed hawk, but then when I looked at my photos I wasn't sure at first. Turns out, it is a red-tailed hawk, but yet another different morph coloration. The bird does have red legs, as you can see in the second photo, but I still can't quite figure out just what you're seeing that's red in this first photo, because it's not his leg up that high. What is that? When he's perched it looks like he had a loose feather but it looks weird. Still, I was so lucky to capture this odd pose as it lifted its wings to take flight!

Here you can see those red legs and, once I lightened the photo, that characteristic red tail. I noticed once I looked at the photo closer that the bird also has its head turned back to take one more look at me, too.