Red Tail Hawk?

[curvemudgeon]

Not sure, but lazygarden seems fairly confident it is and I'll certainly defer to her in issues ornithologic.




Yeah I know the photo sucks. Can't expect much better out of a 7 year old P&S digital.

Comments

[desiringmachine.livejournal.com]

i am not sure it's big enough to be a red-tail, but that depends on how big that trash can is...is that your back yard? it's pretty cool regardless of what kind of hawk it is.

[ladyklife.livejournal.com]

A very well-fed hawk, from the look of it!

Maybe your mouse problem has been fixed.

[sakiko-ito.livejournal.com]

Very resemble hawk kind of bird frequently shows up our backyard too.
Our mouse problem persists, though. Rather it was fixed by house cat.

[mreraser.livejournal.com]

It's a Penguin, everyone knows that.

[curvemudgeon.livejournal.com]

It's one of those plastic tubs frequently seen at parties holding a keg. I figure from talons to top of head was maybe a bit over a foot in height. The plastic tub and Seussian rose bush are mine, the other side of the fence is the neighbor. Nobody knows who owns the fence itself - the survey showed the property line bisecting the top pole.

Yeah, a raptor in the backyard was rather cool, even if it was eyeballing my cat like it was trying to figure out how many meals it could get out of him.

[curvemudgeon.livejournal.com]

I think he was fluffing himself up, basking a bit in the sun, checking out the buffet. What doesn't show in the picture is the black squirrel hiding around the other side of a tree just outside that window.

[curvemudgeon.livejournal.com]

About all this accomplished was to scare more mice into the house. Time to build me some livetraps.

[curvemudgeon.livejournal.com]

What you talkin' about, Willis?

[anneb.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's the time of year, (other food being scarce) or what, (no leaves on the trees for cover?) but I've seen a lot more hawks out in trees along roadways in the past month. Also there's one that stalks $SISTER's birdfeeder in the mornings.

[jennifoot.livejournal.com]

Your cat could take him.

[curvemudgeon.livejournal.com]

Fuck that. Go make me a chicken sammich.

[anneb.livejournal.com]

What? you mean "not feeding the furball" doesn't do it? (:

mmmmmmm

[mischief-bound.livejournal.com]

Red- Tail Hawk: http://www.desertusa.com/aug96/du_hawk.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawk

[curvemudgeon.livejournal.com]

I owny eat souls!

[jennifoot.livejournal.com]

noooooooo not the pink nooooooose!!!!!!!!!!

[jennifoot.livejournal.com]

[jennifoot.livejournal.com]

The one thing I had questioned was the coloring of the beak, but this photo shows that hint of yellow at the base of the beak just like your photo so now I have no doubts.

IN UR YARD
EATIN UR CATZ

Re: mmmmmmm

[curvemudgeon.livejournal.com]

The two leading contenders appear to be Red Tail and Sharp-shinned, but her submitted evidence below seems like a good match.

[curvemudgeon.livejournal.com]

I LOL'd!

Forgot to mention

[ladyklife.livejournal.com]

that I used to get up close to red-tails back in college. We had an outpost of the Raptor society on our campus, and I volunteered there for a year. I got to hold them in my arms and help them to fly again.

Yours looks likely to be one. There are color variations by region, so don't get too hung up on that. But have you actually seen the tail?

[jennifoot.livejournal.com]

CAThulhu, heh

Re: mmmmmmm

[grieve-not.livejournal.com]

There is also a Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) which is common to our area too.

[tiana67.livejournal.com]

AHA. Thank you for posting that....I saw something that looked very similar last week in my neighbors back yard. Fucker was huge - that's what made it so noticeable - but by the time I ran to get the camera, he was gone.

Not sure mine was the same thing, but the size of this bird was actually frightening.

[krizsa.livejournal.com]

bawahaahah...

[doc-quixote.livejournal.com]

... and hands.

Re: mmmmmmm

[grieve-not.livejournal.com]

Red-Shouldered Hawk (http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i3390id.html)

[doc-quixote.livejournal.com]

He heard how much fun teasing Fezzik was from several of his last meals...

[grieve-not.livejournal.com]

this is the immature version of the Red Shouldered (see website for details).

[desiringmachine.livejournal.com]

i would guess red-tailed since they're so much more common, and that is the right size for it. nate and i saw one in griffith park saturday and i *think* i got a good picture of it...i'll see when i plug into my computer later.

[curvemudgeon.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...that's a good match as well. Argh. Tossup. The picture is really too lousy to tell for sure. "Red something Hawk expressing way too much predatory interest in the fools at the window"

[curvemudgeon.livejournal.com]

It was damned impressive when it took off. I'd be happy for it to come back and hang around; it'd probably do a fine job of keeping the crows away.

[curvemudgeon.livejournal.com]

Heh.

[grieve-not.livejournal.com]

One other thing...Red Shouldereds tend to perch almost vertically, whereas Red Taileds tend to perch more like other birds do.