Red Tailed Hawk Cools His Feet

Heard the birds in the tree out front making a ruckus. When I looked out the window, I spotted this Red Tailed Hawk had dropped by the bird bath to cool off a bit. I snapped a few shots through the well weathered glass before I headed out the back to sneak around front for an unobstructed view.

Lucky I did, because apparently my sneaking up skills need some improvement. As I carefully poked my nose around the corner, he flew up into the tree and was gone before I got another glimpse of him.



Tucson Jim

Jim,

I don't think that is a Red-tailed Hawk. I'm not sure but it might be a young Cooper's Hawk. The bare legs are typical of an accipiter and the feathers of the Red-tailed cover the legs down to the feet. Also, an accipiter is more likely to be hanging around your bird feeders.

Nice shot.

Quote:

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Heard the birds in the tree out front making a ruckus. When I looked out the window, I spotted this Red Tailed Hawk had dropped by the bird bath to cool off a bit. I snapped a few shots through the well weathered glass before I headed out the back to sneak around front for an unobstructed view.

Lucky I did, because apparently my sneaking up skills need some improvement. As I carefully poked my nose around the corner, he flew up into the tree and was gone before I got another glimpse of him.

Tucson Jim

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Jim,

Young hawks are always tough to ID and this one's plummage and legs looks about right for one probably hatched this spring. It's definitely not a Red Tail which are Buteo hawks that don't have those long striped tail feathers like your visitor. Buteos are soaring hawks that use their relatively short tail feathers for fine adjustments while soaring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_tail_hawk

I agree that this bather is a young accipiter, and most probably a Cooper's Hawk. Accipiters are chasers and need the longer tail feathers for quick manuevering when chasing prey in forest and riparian settings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper%27s_hawk

They grow up into really fine looking raptors like this one I caught last year.