Red-tailed Hawk

Great photos. I always thought the dark morph was more appealing than the normal or light. Very regal looking!

Great story Gordon, I bet that was a cool experience! Maybe you should take up photographing carp too! If anyone can make them into interesting subject matter it's you! Great conservation work you do!

Oh, and the second picture is great too! Love them both!

The life of a conservation educator! Sometimes teachable moments crop up and one just has to take advantage of them....grin.

Wow! Talk about a distraction!! I agree...that would have been MUCH more interesting than carp! The 2nd shot is great too!

Ha! I'm giving up on IDing western hawks...grin. Redtaileds here in Minnesota don't vary much in color/pattern and are easy to ID.

A few days ago I was doing an interpretive talk (about Asian carp to a small group at a science museum). We were standing at some big fifth floor windows that overlook the Mississippi River when two migrating redtaileds caught an updraft off the building and hovered right in front of us only about 30 feet away. So cool! Well a bird in the hand--so to speak--trumps carp any day and the discussion rapidly turned to birds and bird migration. Then a bald eagle flew down the center of the river about a hundred yards away. Since bald eagles are primarily fish-eaters it was easy to move back to native fishes and the effects invasive carps have on them.

Emily, I've added another photo.

Thanks everyone for catching my error--appreciate it.

I agree with Liam and Christy! I have been seeing a lot of dark morph red-tailed hawks lately! Regardless, beautiful photo! Your photographs never disappoint! Do you have any other shots of this guy?

Definitely a dark morph Red-tailed Hawk. Ferruginous Hawks have larger bills with a long, bright yellow flange.

That's a gorgeous shot! However, I believe you've got a Red-Tailed Hawk - dark phase.