This gorgeous Red-tailed Hawk was flying over my house and decided to land at the top of this pine tree. Lucky for me! He/She sat there for the longest time looking for lunch. After awhile it flew off to hunt somewhere else.
~2021 Fall Hawk Migration is under way be on the lookout for them! Here is a nice site to checkout!
The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members within the genus of Buteo in North America or worldwide.
The red-tailed hawk is one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the “chickenhawk”, though it rarely preys on standard-sized chickens. The bird is sometimes also referred to as the red-tail for short, when the meaning is clear in context. Red-tailed hawks can acclimate to all the biomes within their range, occurring on the edges of non-ideal habitats such as dense forests and sandy deserts.
The red-tailed hawk occupies a wide range of habitats and altitudes, including deserts, grasslands, coniferous and deciduous forests, agricultural fields, and urban areas. Its latitudinal limits fall around the tree line in the Arctic and the species is absent from the high Arctic.
It is legally protected in Canada, Mexico, and the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The 14 recognized subspecies vary in appearance and range, varying most often in color, and in the west of North America, red-tails are particularly often strongly polymorphic, with individuals ranging from almost white to nearly all black.
On occasion a small flock of these tiny birds grace my yard. They flit around seemingly never resting, always active. This past week about ten or so flew in searching through the pine trees for aphids and other insects. They also enjoy suet cakes. It was fun seeing one resting. Perhaps it is a juvenile.
~An unusual fact:
The Bushtit is the only member of its family in the Americas; seven other species are found in Eurasia. All have similar complex hanging nests. A breeding Bushtit pair often has helpers at the nest that aid in raising the nestlings. This already rare behavior is made more unusual by the fact that the helpers are typically adult males.
