{"id":132459,"date":"2023-03-18T05:58:52","date_gmt":"2023-03-18T11:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=132459"},"modified":"2023-03-18T12:47:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-18T18:47:59","slug":"red-tailed-hawk-nesting-and-mating-behaviors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/18\/red-tailed-hawk-nesting-and-mating-behaviors\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-tailed Hawk Nesting And Mating Behaviors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rest of the story.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I posted a single (new) photo of the mated Red-tailed Hawks I photographed earlier this week and told readers I’d post more of them soon. With Feathered Photography the next day is about as soon as it gets, so here they are.<\/p>\n

Prepare yourself. This is a long read.<\/p>\n

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This photo of the mated pair is similar to, but different, than the one I posted yesterday. The male is the perched dark morph on the right and the female is in flight.<\/p>\n

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Both of them were gathering nesting material and taking it to their nest. This is the female with nesting material in her bill and looking up toward her nest, which is where she was about to go. In this habitat she’s so incredibly well camouflaged I had a devil of a time seeing her. If I looked away I usually couldn’t find her again.<\/p>\n

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The nest is in a very difficult location for photography. As they approached it with nesting material they always had their backs to me. They had no choice.<\/p>\n

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I had better luck when they took off from the nest to go look for more nesting material. This is the dark morph male.<\/p>\n

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Occasionally they’d both be on the nest at the same time. Here the female in the background is watching her mate take off.<\/p>\n

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In this shot the roles are reversed.<\/p>\n

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I was surprised, amazed really, by how much depth of field I had in this shot. Both birds are plenty sharp enough.<\/p>\n

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OK, some background for the following series of mating shots.<\/p>\n

If I’ve learned anything about red-tail mating behavior over the years it’s that mating can often be predicted by watching their behavior, which is a huge advantage for the photographer who doesn’t want to miss the early shots of the performance. When I first started photographing birds, mating was often completed before I got my lens on them. These days that rarely happens to me. Here’s why.<\/p>\n

In red-tails, the two birds are often far apart just prior to mating but two behaviors often occur just prior to the act and if you watch for them you can be prepared.<\/p>\n