Can you help I'd this bird?

by Kim Naylon
(North east Pennsylvania )

There is a medium sized bird in my neighbors back yard and we have no clue what it could be. It is mostly brown, has a redish tinted patch on the side of its neck. A longer neck and small head with a pointed beak. It also has I sort of checkerd/speckled pattern on it almost like a duck or even a hawk? It flys almost like a duck and has a white rear as it flys away almost like a duck tail? It was in a patch of his backyard that has recently been torn up by some kind of animal, maybe the birds? There were two of them. In Pennsylvania.