Thursday, May 7, 2009

Sky Watch Friday: Red-tailed Hawk

Soaring hawks, like this red-tail, are classified under the genus Buteo. Buteos are hawks and old world buzzards that have broad rounded wings. They use these broad wings to soar on thermal air currents.
Thermals are formed when the ground heats the air that is right above it. As the air is heated it begins to rise. Butoes use this rising air to lift them high into the sky. That way they can conserve energy while flying. Red-tailed hawks get even more use out of the air currents because they fly with their wings slightly uplifted in a "V" shape. This is called a dihedral position and it enables some birds to fly more efficiently.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice red tail hawk photo of his soaring. I showed my new 400mm zoom lens on my Brookville daily photo today and also on My Birds Blog a photo that I took with it.

Chris said...

What gorgeous flight shot. Very nice and the resizing is very good too!! Congrats it is very nice.

Brad Myers said...

Beautiful photo for skywatch Friday, I always enjoy your bird photographs.

Loran said...

Excellent capture! I'm dazzled by the bird and sky.

Sylvia K said...

Fantastic shot! I, too, am dazzled by the bird and the sky! Happy SWF!

Dagrun said...

Oh my! Amazing!

P-TER said...

Wonderful picture from the sky and de bird.
I enjoy it ! ! !
Gr.
P-TER

Guy D said...

Outstanding shot of the hawk, its perfect.

Have a great weekend.
Guy
Regina In Pictures

Dirkjogt said...

Wow, great shot!

Bim said...

A stunning shot - I also love the Monarch caterpillar further down. It looks like the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland :)

marcia@joyismygoal said...

Very nice close up--I learned to love hawks volunteering as a docent at our nature Center they were everywhere and part of our presentations in the wild esp at the highest points.-- one that had been rescued and could no longer hunt was in residence and she seem to know us and --and give a little show when we talked about her:)

Alan said...

Beautiful. I love seeing hawks. Glad we still have enough trees and wild game for them to live and hunt in the area.

Audun said...

This is a spectacular shot. Love the hawk against the clear blu sky. Thanks for sharing

Regina said...

Always a great shot.

The Explorer said...

Thanks for great information, I learned something again.

Huzhar said...

Outstanding shot of a hawk. This is so beautiful. Informative post..

Shey said...

Magnificent! Love the angle in this one, Just takes my breath away. :)

Janie said...

Great explanation of using thermals and dihedrals. Beautiful photo, too.

Adrienne Zwart said...

Great shot! And as always, very informative, too.

Gennasus said...

Lovely shot of a beautiful bird

Anonymous said...

lovely shot of the hawk.

BLS said...

Beautiful hawk in it element. Your story of using the thermals reminds me of the wedge tailed eagles in North Western Australia sometimes it seemed like hundres spiraling so high i couldnt make out the top one.

Crafty Green Poet said...

what a stunning photo, I love to watch birds ridign the thermals

LivingLifeToTheFullest404 said...

Great shot!!!