![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/red-tailed-hawk-5221-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-5221-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAt first I thought this hawk might have an atypical bicolored bill.<\/p>\n
In our high desert environment the backgrounds in my photos are often devoid of green or bright colors but this year our wet and cool spring has changed all that, for now at least.<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,\u00a0Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I photographed this Red-tailed Hawk four days ago at the base of a mountain range in northern Utah. I like the setting that includes a rocky, lichen-covered perch, green grass and flowers behind the hawk.<\/p>\n The bird had its back to me for the entire time it was perched but suddenly it turned on the rock and raised its wings to take off. I got quite a few flight shots after it launched but it unexpectedly flew straight toward me and I didn’t get a catch light in the eye in any of them. In this shot the hawk isn’t quite tack sharp but I like the pose and the setting well enough to post it anyway.<\/p>\n At first glance the hawk appeared to have a bi-colored bill with the upper mandible being the normal near-black and the lower mandible white. In all of my photos taken while the bird was perched the mandible looks white on both the left and right side.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But in a highly-cropped photo that shows us better detail of the left side of the face I’ve decided that the white color is probably caused by a small white down feather stuck to its bill. Most likely the feather became stuck to the bill while the hawk was preening.<\/p>\n Initially I was led astray in part because the bill appeared to be white on both sides. Don’t make assumptions, Ron…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At first I thought this hawk might have an atypical bicolored bill.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/red-tailed-hawk-5192-big-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-5192-big-crop-ron-dudley\\"")
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