Red-tailed hawks are so ubiquitous that I’ve pretty much stopped posting my photos of them here unless the picture is exceptional or the bird is doing something interesting. I see at least one, and often many, red tails every time I go out. They are one of the most common raptors in Northern America and indeed I might say THE most common raptor, at least in this area. The instructor of a raptor identification class I took told us that if we see a raptor, our first question to ID it should be, “why is this bird not a red tail”? I love red tails, and get to work hands on with them frequently since they manage to injure themselves on a regular basis – or rather, there are so many of them around, that they constitute the largest number of raptors that come into the wildlife hospitals I work in – but it has gotten to the point where when I see a large bird in the sky I sort of hope it’s something more “exciting” than a turkey vulture or red tail. But I’m never sad to see any raptor. These red tails are getting a post here just because there are two of them together which I deemed “interesting”. 🙂
Looking at the bird on the bottom of this pic kind of hurts my neck!
Note that you can tell from this photo that this is a juvenile (on the left) and an adult (on the right), by the tails. The eponymous red tail comes with adulthood, while juvies have a banded tail.
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