Thursday, March 31, 2011

Red-tailed Hawk Flying Free

Hawks are divided into two genus, Buteos and Accipiters. Buteos have long wings and a relatively short tail while Accipiters are the opposite with short wings and a longer tail. Buteos are typically the soaring hawks. The long wings help them to ride the air drafts and thermals. With a shorter tail they are not as acrobatic in the air as the Accipiters are. One of the larger Buteos in North America is the red-tailed hawk. It is often easy to tell a red-tail in flight by the slight "V" shape of the wings which is called a dihedral.



The red-tailed hawk is the most common raptor seen in North America. They are often seen perched on signs and light poles on the side of many roads. This is because the roads provide an excellent hunting habitat for these birds. Red-tails are ambush hunters. They typically perch and wait for prey, which takes a lot less energy then flying around. Since there are typically not a lot of trees and bushes on the road side and the grass is often cut the red-tail perched up on the light pole has a very large area for which it can search for prey.

18 comments:

Sylvia K said...

Gorgeous birds, lovely skies and a perfect capture for the day! Happy SWF! Have a great weekend!

Sylvia

Pat said...

Wonderful captures of the red-tailed hawk! And that's a beautiful soft cloudy sky in the background!

Laura said...

those wings declare freedom...so beautiful!

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Rajlakshmi said...

beautiful capture. I checked your other clicks too. Must say they are amazing.

jocodeane said...

If I can choose, I'll pick the kingbird from yesterday's post.

Irene said...

Great captures! Amazing birds!

Mary Howell Cromer said...

I adore Red-tailed Hawks and these are very nice flight images...good info too~

Rachel said...

I have been seeing the red-tailed hawks in NW MN the past few days, just as you said perched by the side of the road waiting for something to eat.

NatureFootstep said...

I did see this bird in Costa Rica, but not this good. Glad to see what they look like. :)

syel said...

terrific capture of hawk in mid-air. it looks so mighty! :)

Anonymous said...

What lovely shots!

Rosie@travel-i-tales said...

Could I adopt that hawk? It is so lovely in flight.
Rosie

forgetmenot said...

Lovely shots of "everything" on your blog--sky, birds, butterflies. Great work. Mickie :)

Victoria Tsavdaridou said...

Very beautiful photos!! Red-tailled hawks are very beautiful animals. Thanks for sharing!
Vicky, My Skywatch

Dan said...

They are plentiful today, but that wasn't always the case.

A magnificent bird of prey, and wonderful images.

Daniel

Explore. Dream. Discover.
http://daniels-view.blogspot.com/
--

tracy said...

amazing photos. i really appreciate you taking the time to include all of the great information as well. more than looking at some just lovely pictures... i've gotten smarter by visiting your site today. :) thanks!

Valter said...

Linda foto!