RE: couple easy questions
The beard and the tail are the best ways to get a quick ID.
But it's not necessarily the 4 center feathers that are longer than the others. It varies. And I have actually seena jake that has even lengthed fan feathers. It depends on when he was hatched, and how fast his mature tail feathers grow in. This past weekend I got good video of two jakes -- one had the two middle tail feathers longer than the rest, and the other had even lengthed feathers all the way around. (Yes, they were both jakes - I promise.)
Hal