red-tailed hawk

Took this shot about 1 block from my home this morning.

Red-Tailed Hawk in a tree of our front yard.

Was able to go birding on Wednesday, chances have been few and far between. Saw some good birds, including my first American Bittern. The hawks are back on the poles for the winter and managed a few flight shots, this being one of them.

Red-Tailed Hawk

Check out the "black blizzard" just down the road from this guy: http://www.birdforum.tv/members/action/viewvideo/3142/Black_Blizzard/

Red-tailed Hawk in Dallas, Texas.

Red-tailed Hawk in Dallas, Texas.

Red-tailed Hawk in Dallas, Texas.

Western Red-tailed Hawk

Can any hawk experts tell me what phase this is? I never really seen one like this before.

Don't like taking images of these on telephone poles; take what I can get...

A female - lands on the top branches of a pine tree that overlooks her nest below. A pair of Red-tailed hawks have accepted me to within a certain distance of the nest as they allowed me to take their pictures as they came and went several times over the space of a few hours. It has taken me...

... But (continued from part 5): "in other contexts, I do think the correct identification of species matters quite a bit. For instance, on the bird watcher forum where I post some of my photos: Folks there are patient with me as a newbie. They tolerate my ID errors and offer corrections. But I...

Did it matter that family 2 and I yielded to temptation and thought of these birds as Golden Eagles? ... continued from part 4: In the context of families out on a Fathers Day hike, I think not. Even if the second family later checked, as I did, and found we were wrong, I think no harm was done...

continued from part 3: OK, so Golden Eagles are brown all over and half again as big; these birds were Red-Tailed Hawks. But did that matter? The first family were happy to have a name to attach to the birds. Perhaps any name would do, as my authority as someone with a large camera and who...

continued from parts 1 and 2: When we came around the bend, the hawks were still there now both the juvenile and a parent bird, and very soon the other parent as well. But the family felt sure that these were not hawks. Too big, they thought, and look at that yellowish color of their breasts...

I mentioned that I was working on an editorial story about these red-tails. It's a long story and a longer editorial. Since birdforum is (anonymously) mentioned, I've decided to run the relevant bits as a series. Here's part 1: On my outward-bound hike Sunday morning, I passed a pair of large...

And finally, before I hit the sack, here's one from yesterday's hike (Don Edwards to Coyote Hills and back). There's a long story about this Red-Tailed Hawk, its family, and two human families I met while watching the hawks. I'm actually writing it up as part of an editorial I'm working on for a...

You might be able to recognize the quail, that is the hawks prey. However, the hawk does not get the credit for the capture. A Coopers Hawk actually made the capture, which makes more sense, since they are more stealthy and quicker than the Red-tail. When the Coopers settled in to devour it's...