{"id":75413,"date":"2019-09-05T05:50:03","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T11:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=75413"},"modified":"2019-09-05T08:14:19","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T14:14:19","slug":"juvenile-red-tailed-hawk-the-rest-of-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/05\/juvenile-red-tailed-hawk-the-rest-of-the-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk – The Rest Of The Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I posted only a single preview image of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk behavior for reasons I explained in that post and I promised to fully document the behavior with many photos soon. Today I keep that promise.<\/p>\n

The following photos are documentary in nature and some of them have flaws including slight softness, underwing whites with little detail in the bright sun and even a few cut off body parts. But I think they more than adequately document the behavior and illustrate why I believe my explanation for the behavior is correct. All red-tail photos were taken in the mountains six days ago and are posted in the order they were taken. I don’t know the sex of the hawk but this time I’ll refer to it as a female so I can avoid repeated use of that dreaded word “it.”<\/p>\n

Ok, here’s\u00a0 the answer to the “cliff-hanger” I left you with yesterday. I believe this young hawk was repeatedly practicing landings. Landings of all types, including in the image I posted yesterday. Young hawks actually have to learn<\/em> how to take off, fly and land and we all realize at least to some degree how complicated and well-timed those actions have to be. It takes practice. Lots of practice.<\/p>\n

Review my evidence below and see if you agree with my explanation of the behavior.<\/p>\n

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She had her eye on the rock in front of her as a potential perch almost from the moment she landed on the rock she’s on. An adult would probably just step from one to the other but for such a young hawk it must have been a challenging maneuver because she sure seemed to think about her plan of attack.<\/p>\n

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She decided to fly-hop the short span using her wings for assistance. My shutter timing didn’t catch her in mid air but…<\/p>\n

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her incredibly awkward landing illustrated why she was nervous about it – her “aim” wasn’t the best and her right foot apparently slipped off the back edge of the rock so she almost fell off.<\/p>\n

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Almost immediately after regaining her balance she began to look for her next destination. She chose another rock perhaps 20′ in front of and slightly below her but…<\/p>\n

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she had to clear the rocks, sagebrush and grass…<\/p>\n

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directly in front of her and then drop down again onto her intended perch.<\/p>\n

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At this age they can be just as awkward in flight as they are on the ground – notice her kittywampus leg and foot positions.<\/p>\n

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As she began to clear the taller grass she was a little too close to me for flight shots so I amputated some body parts in several of my images. I was lucky with this one – the photo is full frame (uncropped) except for a narrow slice taken off the right.<\/p>\n

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By now I believe she had a clear view of her intended perch.<\/p>\n

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With this vertical wing position I had no chance of avoiding cut off body parts.<\/p>\n

Since at the time I didn’t know where she was going it was at this point that I lost focus on her.<\/p>\n

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I regained focus soon after she dropped down and landed on her new perch.<\/p>\n

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But she barely had her wings folded before she half jumped and half flew down to…<\/p>\n

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yet another rock in front of and almost directly below her. This is the photo I posted yesterday.<\/p>\n

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She slowed her landing with her wings but even so I lost focus on her once again…<\/p>\n

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until this shot as she very briefly posed on her new perch before…<\/p>\n

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launching once again to another destination.<\/p>\n

Obviously she didn’t confide in me regarding her motivation for going from perch to perch this many times in such a short period so I can only speculate. It could have been a deliberate learning behavior or simply play with learning as a by product. Just as in human children play has considerable learning benefits. The behavior allowed her practice in landing, takeoffs and flight so it had to be beneficial for her at this young age.<\/p>\n

And now you know the rest of the story. Apologies for the delay.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n