The Awesome Raptor, Meet the Red-Tailed Hawk

[best appreciated at full size against black]

If you look out our kitchen window above our sink, you'll see our bird feeders, the beautiful big meadow beyond, and the large Oak tree there, which we have a great fondness for. This tree is a favorite for the birds which live here and visit for the season, and it's also a place where raptors will sometimes land!

A few months ago, I looked out and spotted a large bird on the top branches of the tree. I grabbed my trusty Canon SX30 with its 35X zoom and managed to get this picture!! It's not the best quality, but I thought it was good enough to share with all of you. We feel extremely fortunate to have birds like this viewing our area as their territory, and as you can see, this is a very large bird!!

Breathtaking and huge, the Red-Tailed Hawk measures 18-22" high with a wingspan that reaches 42-56"...that's nearly 4-5 FEET from wingtip to wingtip!!! They are amazing! Females are 25% larger than males, which is how the birds can be sexed. This is a female and we see her flying around about once a month. I saw her this morning, in fact, so I thought it would be the perfect time to post her picture!

These birds are common throughout North and South America and because they have adapted so well to human encroachment on wilderness, can be found everywhere, including cities! In fact, when I was in San Francisco last September, my friend and I were in Golden Gate Park and witnessed a Red-Tailed Hawk dive out of the sky right in front of us and nearly catch a songbird in a nearby tree. It landed in a tree where we watched it for the few seconds it stayed before flying off again. What a truly remarkable bird!

If you would like to know more about Red-Tailed Hawks, Wiki has a super page here: Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)

This image was taken in February, 2012.