{"id":97395,"date":"2021-04-22T04:57:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T10:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=97395"},"modified":"2021-04-22T05:19:35","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T11:19:35","slug":"adult-red-tailed-hawk-takeoff-and-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/22\/adult-red-tailed-hawk-takeoff-and-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult Red-tailed Hawk Takeoff And Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yet another hawk looking pretty beat-up from molt, this one from two days ago.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

This time of year you never know what our raptors are going to look like regarding molt until they open their wings. Two days ago this presumed female perched on a rocky point in northern Utah was looking pretty good, at first.<\/p>\n

She had her back to me so chances were good that when she eventually left her perch she’d take off away from me.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

But she fooled me. Without much warning she turned on her perch and quickly launched to my right.<\/p>\n

I’m still seeing little if any sign of molt.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

But when her right wing stretched out it looked like she’d been through the wars.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Seven shots later in the burst when my shutter fired with her wing in the vertical position it looked even worse. That’s a lot of wing surface area to be messed up this badly and still provide enough lift for flight and effective maneuvering but she somehow seemed to manage it all pretty well.<\/p>\n

Cornell’s Birds of the World has this to say about molt in Red-tailed Hawks:<\/p>\n