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Peregrine Falcon and Red-Tailed Hawk
Oct. 24th, 2023 07:16 amAs I continue sorting through my pictures from the Carolina Raptor Center now 4+ weeks after the fact I continue finding that despite the poor conditions for photography I managed to get great pictures of almost every bird. In this blog I share pics of two birds that are common sights at raptor centers— and not that hard to spot in the wild, either.
First up is a peregrine falcon.
Peregrine falcons have the distinction of being the fastest animals alive. "But aren't cheetahs the fastest?" you might ask. "They can run 60mph." Well, cheetahs are the fastest land animals. The peregrine falcon can fly 60mph (air speed) in level flight... and when it goes into a dive it can exceed 200 mph.
See those little plugs inside its nostrils? The peregrine can close up its nose when the air is hitting it too fast. Take another look in this 1:1 crop from the same image:
BTW, that bird in its talon in the first picture? I believe that's a toy. Raptors in captivity enjoy playing with lures. It's part of how they exercise their natural impulses. Either that or it's a real bird that made the mistake of flying into the peregrine's enclosure.
The second bird today is a red-tailed hawk:
Red tails are recognizable by their long, reddish tails. You can barely make out this bird's tail hanging below the perch at the bottom of the photo. Other identifiers include parts of their overall color schemes, though red tails have significant color variation among members of the species. Still, if you're not sure what kind of hawk you see in the sky, shouting, "Looks like a 'tail!" has about a 50% chance of being right (assuming it's not actually a turkey vulture) as red tails are common across North America.
Here's a closeup of the red-tailed hawk:
If the red tail looks similar to the red-shouldered hawk and broad-winged hawk, that's no coincidence. All three are members of the buteo genus. They're "New World" hawks found primarily in the Western Hemisphere. They're different from the accipiter genus in size and wing shape. Accipiters are forest hawks. They have narrower wings and long, narrow tails for fast maneuverability between trees. Buteos are grassland hawks. They have broader wings and shorter, wider tails for soaring in the open sky for long periods of time. Those are just generalities, of course. Red-shouldered hawks like to nest (and hunt) in forests, and red-tailed hawks will nest in a tree, on a telephone post, on a skyscraper ledge, on a lighted scoreboard at the ballpark, or just about anywhere else. They are hardy, adaptable birds.
First up is a peregrine falcon.
Peregrine falcons have the distinction of being the fastest animals alive. "But aren't cheetahs the fastest?" you might ask. "They can run 60mph." Well, cheetahs are the fastest land animals. The peregrine falcon can fly 60mph (air speed) in level flight... and when it goes into a dive it can exceed 200 mph.
See those little plugs inside its nostrils? The peregrine can close up its nose when the air is hitting it too fast. Take another look in this 1:1 crop from the same image:
BTW, that bird in its talon in the first picture? I believe that's a toy. Raptors in captivity enjoy playing with lures. It's part of how they exercise their natural impulses. Either that or it's a real bird that made the mistake of flying into the peregrine's enclosure.
The second bird today is a red-tailed hawk:
Red tails are recognizable by their long, reddish tails. You can barely make out this bird's tail hanging below the perch at the bottom of the photo. Other identifiers include parts of their overall color schemes, though red tails have significant color variation among members of the species. Still, if you're not sure what kind of hawk you see in the sky, shouting, "Looks like a 'tail!" has about a 50% chance of being right (assuming it's not actually a turkey vulture) as red tails are common across North America.
Here's a closeup of the red-tailed hawk:
If the red tail looks similar to the red-shouldered hawk and broad-winged hawk, that's no coincidence. All three are members of the buteo genus. They're "New World" hawks found primarily in the Western Hemisphere. They're different from the accipiter genus in size and wing shape. Accipiters are forest hawks. They have narrower wings and long, narrow tails for fast maneuverability between trees. Buteos are grassland hawks. They have broader wings and shorter, wider tails for soaring in the open sky for long periods of time. Those are just generalities, of course. Red-shouldered hawks like to nest (and hunt) in forests, and red-tailed hawks will nest in a tree, on a telephone post, on a skyscraper ledge, on a lighted scoreboard at the ballpark, or just about anywhere else. They are hardy, adaptable birds.
