![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-9773-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-9773-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nIt’s the time of year for young red-tails acting goofy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Four days ago I spent 18 minutes up close with this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk on a gnarly old fence post as ‘he’ preened and posed for me in pretty good light. This pose, with one leg and clenched foot sticking way out, is fairly common for red-tails but what made this young bird different and amusing was his reaction to his own appendage.<\/p>\n He was fascinated by it, as if he was just discovering that it belonged to him. He kept staring at it, intensely, as he moved it further away from his body and then pulled it back in. And he did it repeatedly, with his eyes glued to that leg and clenched foot the entire time. He reminded me of a human baby discovering parts of his or her own body.<\/p>\n If you don’t think he’s staring at his leg and foot…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n check this out.<\/p>\n This is the angle he usually had his head at as he focused on that strange appendage down there. The head angle didn’t allow for light on his face or in his eye but it certainly demonstrated how fascinated he was by a part of his body that he apparently was just realizing belonged to him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This is probably my favorite preening pose of raptors, or of any bird really, but it’s incredibly difficult to get their eye open when they do it (usually it’s closed to protect it.). He was ‘rezipping’ the hooks on each individual tail feather so I took dozens of photos while he was in this general pose with different tail feathers in his bill. But I only got two shots with his eye open and the two photos were identical to each other.<\/p>\n At first glance I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on with his bill in this photo. It looks different somehow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It turns out that he had a clump of dirt\/mud on his bill that I hadn’t noticed before and that brighter yellow-white spot above it was just his cere<\/a><\/span><\/span>. My original impression of his bill was further distorted by the very tip of the tail feather that he’s pulling through his bill.<\/span><\/p>\n I’m sure glad I can crop in heavily on photos like this and get more detail. If I couldn’t my curiosity would kill me.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s the time of year for young red-tails acting goofy. (4 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-9772-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-9772-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-9694-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-9694-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-9694-big-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-9694-big-crop-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n