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It’s a beautiful day, you’re out birding, and you come across a bird who, instead of perching 20 feet over your head or winging its way past your face, is standing on the ground with its wing askew, wearing a dismayed expression. What do you do? You pick it up (carefully, if it’s a goshawk) [...]

When you spend a lot of time outdoors you get to see strange things happen. Birds are consumate improvisors and they are always open to the demands of the moment. So while they may have regular habits, weird things do occur and the field guide will only help you to a point… the rest is [...]

I don’t know what it is, but since I bought Dick Forsman‘s “The Raptors of Europe and Middle East” my interest in buzzards has gone through the roof. In fact it got so bad that when we bought a new car, my only decision criteria was whether it had a full glass panorama roof or [...]

Sometimes hawks, in particular, Red-shouldered Hawks will go all Turdus migratorious, hop on the ground and nosh some slimy earth worms.  There’s even video proof of a Red-shouldered Hawk eating earthworms on Flickr and there’s been discussion about this on MD bird listserv. This discussion about red-shoulders comes up from time to time and it [...]

In the dictionary, the word harry is defined as meaning to harass, annoy, or prove a nuisance to by repeated attacks. Randy Finley of Wildlifist generously shares with us a photo series that shows exactly how the Northern Harrier earned its evocative name… On a recent chilly late December morning, I was visiting the Lower [...]

While Birding the Choco Region near Esmeraldas we had an amazing day with many raptors at the Botrosa Road. We had some very nice looks at Black Hawk-Eagle, Semiplumbeous Hawk, Double toothed Kite, Laughing Falcon, and two others not yet positively identified. Black Hawk-Eagle Semiplumbeous Hawk Laughing Falcon Double-toothed Kite

Come 20 January 2012 birders will have reason to be philatelists as well. That’s because the United States Postal Service will be releasing a set of five stamps, illustrated by Robert Giusti, featuring birds of prey. The five lucky birds are Northern Goshawk, Peregrine Falcon, Golden Eagle, Osprey, and Northern Harrier. Check them out below! [...]

A long holiday weekend with lots of food, lots of family, and a long drive on each end leaves me feeling much how this young Red-tailed Hawk looks.  I’m not the only one, right?  Not that I didn’t have a wonderful weekend but I think I will spend as much of tomorrow as I can [...]

A nice thing about spending 7 months with the same bird, particularly a second year bird, is getting to watch it molt and acquire its adult plumage. Watching a bird mature is also gratifying because the majority of young birds don’t make it to their second birthday, so every adult you see is a special [...]

(Check out Part 1 here) (Check out Part 2 here) This hawk was a fierce hunter. I’ve seen young Red-tailed Hawks who just don’t have the hang of it, counting on luck of good fortune to present them with a careless gopher or a rare easy meal. Patch was focused and deliberate, consistent and inventive. [...]

(Check out Part 1 here) The city can be a tough place to make a living but San Francisco offers raptors a number of parks, small and large, for them to thrive in. But the parks have edges, hard edges, and the hawks have to handle the transitions. Above, Patch the Red-tailed Hawk perches on [...]

I confess, I don’t always love hawks.  Sure, they’re beautiful and powerful, a reminder of the feral freedom of the skies. They’re also confoundingly difficult to identify, the eternal inscrutable spot in the distance.  This is probably why I number so many hawk books in my collection. There’s the slim Hawk Watch: At Guide for [...]

I was pretty new to watching birds and photography when I first met this Red-tailed Hawk. While keeping track of some hummingbirds in Alta Plaza Park in San Francisco, I noticed a shadow slipping over the terraced hillside. When I looked up the hawk was five feet above my head and powering towards a perch [...]

For with a lark’s heart he doth tower, By a glorious upward instinct drawn; No bee nestles deeper in the flower Than he in the bursting rose of dawn. -From “The Falcon” by James Russell Lowell If one were to combine the word “bird” with the word “superlative” the result would be the Peregrine Falcon. [...]

On October 15-16th, 2011 Nikon Birding teamed up with Hawk Mountain and Cabela’s to host a blow-out weekend focusing on raptors. This weekend was meant to draw kids into the Hamburg, PA Cabela’s to experience birds in a up-close and personal kind of way. Those of you who have read my posts in the past [...]

If you have never been to Hawk Mountain, Pennsylvania during fall migration I would strongly recommend a visit. We have just returned from hosting this past weekend’s inaugural Extreme Raptor Weekend and Hawk Mountain was one of our chosen partner venues. Besides the presence of several noted birding personalities, interesting seminars and phenomenal prize give-aways, [...]

Ever wanted to meet James Currie, beat writer on 10,000 Birds and star of Birding Adventures TV?  Or Mike Freiberg, beat writer on 10,000 Birds and Nikon Birding Marker Specialist? Yeah, me too!  You’ll have your chance three weekends from now, 15-16 October, at the Extreme Raptor Weekend in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.  Want to know more? [...]

A friend of a friend named Daryl Cavallaro took this stunning shot of a Merlin snagging a snack recently at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.  Bonus points to anyone who can identify the dragonfly.  The photo is copyrighted to Daryl and, no, you can’t use it without permission. Merlin with dragonfly by Daryl Cavallaro (click [...]

Today is International Vulture Awareness Day!  Rather than go into great detail about a variety of vultures as we have in the past, I tracked down five great quotes about Turkey Vultures, or, at least, five quotes that are either about Turkey Vultures or generically about vultures.  Though I had a couple in mind I [...]

The Seattle Seahawks are, of course, a professional (American) football team, known as much for the inability to win it all as for anything else.  Their one Super Bowl appearance, in Super Bowl XL, ended in a 21-10 drubbing by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Fortunately for Seattleites there is another kind of seahawk that can be [...]