![\"red-tailed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-2562-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a01\/2500, f\/11 (don’t ask me why…), ISO 500, 500 f\/4, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n It didn’t even\u00a0become nervous as I approached in my pickup.\u00a0 In fact it was more interested in this sauntering sparrow than it was in me and I don’t believe it was because it considered the sparrow to be potential prey.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/3200, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n As I slowly got closer it even squatted down on its haunches – a sure sign that it wasn’t nervous.\u00a0 This was the first time I’d seen this common posture in a red-tail while it was\u00a0perched on the ground.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/3200, f\/7.1 ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n As I approached even more closely it did stand erect but then almost immediately tucked one foot up, which is another indicator of a lack of nervousness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/2500, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Even with me so close it was obviously scanning the roadside grass (lower right), probably for prey.<\/p>\n I can’t definitively explain this behavior but it’s my guess that it was a very young hawk (lack of fear) hunting grasshoppers along the road.\u00a0 The grasshoppers were incredibly thick and I observed and photographed several Prairie Falcons hunting and eating\u00a0them (see link<\/a>).\u00a0 Red-tailed Hawks eat vertebrates primarily, especially rodents, and you seldom see anything in their dietary statistics that includes any insects but I did see one reference (BNA) that said that the diet of red-tails in the Puerto Rican rain forest includes 13% arthropods (which includes insects).<\/p>\n So if this was a very young bird it would have been an inexperienced hunter and since there were so many grasshoppers available I suspect it decided to take advantage of the situation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n