More Hawks

[rginn]

These are two immature red-tails my son has. He hunts with the the larger one. They are still immature, so they don't have the distinctive red tail feathers yet.

 

[Charmin]

Beautiful hawk! That last picture is soo funny!!
regards~~sandcreek

 

[rginn]

That little one had a whole routine he went through, Sandcreek. He was checking out his image in the camera lens and thinking about pouncing on it. Here's a pic of the back of the older Red-Tail. The red tail feathers are just coming in.

 

[naturegirl]

Oh my gosh they are beautiful! I rescued a juevenal once, I think it must have hit a powerline. The game warden told me I couldn't keep it, I couldn't find anyone to take it, pre-internet days. So I had to turn it loose. Probably not a happy ending. I love hawks. As a bird watcher, they are my favorites. I look forward to our winters here just to see how many varieties of Red-tails I can see. Harlans of course being my favorite. When I was a stay-at-home-mom, I had time to get a young Red-shoulder to come to a feeder. It came back 6 winters, then I had to go to work, and quit seeing it. It got so used to me it would come and take the food with me just squatting down out of the way. It's wing hit my head once. I don't have the time or dedication now to be a falconeer, but I can just imagine the thrill your son must have to handle these birds. Hope you had a good trip back home.

ng

 

[RON (PA)]

Beautiful birds. Simply beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

 

[NGE]

What kind of wingspan does a mature red-tail have? Also, do their wingtips have individual feathers spaced apart that appear to be like fingers (while they are soaring)? I was wondering, because I see alot of them around here and thought that only eagles had this feature. I live near Detroit, but my fav park is where I also fish. How do you tell an eagle from a large hawk while you are on the ground without binoculars? The known eagles that I have seen at my fav lake are actually scanning the water and occaisionally drop down for a fishy snack. I have found two nests in the park where my fav lake is located, the nests are about 7 miles from each other. I have seen young eagles soaring with their parents and have counted 7 smaller birds with the huge ones, so I am assuming that these smaller ones are from several years nesting. Do young eagles hunt with their parents? If so, how long? Thanks for all information.........NGE

 

[godisnum1]

I was just curious... how does one go about being able to legally keep a hawk and take care of it?
Probably a question for your son, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Bran <><

 

[rginn]

Boy, NGE, you got me on those questions. The red tail he hunts with has a wingspan close to 3 feet. It's immature, but they don't get much bigger than that. In the movies when they have an eagle scream, it's usually the cry of a red tail, as eagles don't sound like that. Bran, get ahold of your Department of Wildlife where you're at and they can give you info on falconry. I assume where you're at they have a program for falconry. In Oklahoma, my son has a sponsor and the Game Warden came out and inspected his set up, and he passed. He said it wasn't too difficult, as he takes good care of his birds.

 

[naturegirl]

Hey NGE, when most young birds leave the nest they are as large, or larger than the adults. This is true with eagles. It Takes a Bald Eagle 5 years to attain it's adult plumage, so a young one looks different than a mature adult. Only a mature one has the white head and tail. If you have Golden Eagles in your area it's kinda the same thing. If you saw smaller birds with the eagles, they were something else. Vultures, or buzzards come close in size to an eagle, but they fly different. Soaring eagles hold they're wings straight across. Vultures wings(when soaring) are slightly higher than the body, in a "v" and they look shakey, like they really haven't got the hang of flying. Ospreys also are sometimes mistaken for eagles, but are smaller and marked different. Love those raptors!

naturegirl