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To the Beauty of Birds

The Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis is characterized, of course, by its red tail. In photo 4375, taken in our back yard, shows a clear view of the Red Hawk’s underside. The red tail is just visible on the outer tail feathers. The dark leading edges of the wings followed by much lighter feathers is distinctive.

On the road to the light house at Point Reyes National Wildlife Area we saw four Red-tailed Hawks Buteo jamaicensis occupying various power posts along the road. If I got too close to one he would fly to the next post and we would repeat the process. This provided a number of shots of the bird in flight including one of the best photos of the red tail (in the wild) I ever shot (2817). One photo (2780) showed the under feathers particularly well. Photo (7572) was taken at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Reserve in southern Washington.

The close-ups of a Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis was made available by the rescue efforts of Hawk’s Aloft at the Festival of the Cranes, Bosque del Apache, NM. This shows its beautiful red tail 3171. This bird has lost its right wing. This did not affect the outspread left wing showing close up the under-wing feather patterns.

Red-tailed Hawk