This might be the most spectacular and unique raptor I’ve ever photographed or even seen. In fact there’s no “might be” about it – without qualification, it is. And I even got some pretty decent photos of it in flight.
The winter of 2008 was cold and brutal in northern Utah which put a lot of stress on birds. More than once I noticed ducks frozen into the ice at dawn.
Over the years I’ve documented a variety of birds with severely deformed beaks including the two examples below. Now we may know the cause of the condition.
I took exactly forty shots of this hawk during takeoff and in flight. Eleven of them made the cut to include here, for reasons both good and not so good.