![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-5985-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-5985-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd one of them was really getting into it.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n A year ago this month I spent some time with recently fledged Red-tailed Hawk siblings as they were learning how to survive (and apparently how to enjoy life) out of the nest.<\/p>\n The bird in the back was really working over its sibling’s plumage with its bill and the recipient of all the attention certainly seemed to be enjoying it, so much so that “he” rolled his head over upside down, closed his nictitating membranes, opened his bill and even raised one foot as if in ecstasy. It reminded me of the reaction I used to get from one of my dogs (Jake, a Springer Spaniel with acres of lips) when I would scratch his neck as he laid upside down next to me on the sofa.<\/p>\n Technically I believe this behavior is called “social grooming” but it looked like old-fashioned nuzzling and cuddling to me.<\/p>\n And it sure was fun to watch.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addendum – an afterthought, really:<\/em><\/p>\n Since the photo above doesn’t really show one bird’s bill buried in the plumage of the other (it might be interpreted that the rear bird is only watching its sibling acting goofy and has nothing to do with causing the silliness) I decided to include another photo, taken a few seconds before this one, that I posted last year.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In it we actually see the “nuzzling and cuddling” I referred to above that partially precipitated the reaction of the second bird in the previous photo.<\/em><\/p>\n And by the way, when I first noticed the contrasting coloration of these two youngsters I had to wonder if the one on the right eventually became a rufous morph just like its mother (a spectacular-looking bird I’ve posted here often<\/a>). I have no idea how their genetics works for that trait, nor do I fully understand all the changes that occur in this species from juvenile to adult plumage, but based on color it seems (potentially) logical to me. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-5962-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-5962-ron-dudley\\"")
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