My favorite hawk and a capture of one that I really love. This is a captive raptor, one of the participants at the raptor photoshoot event I did last weekend.

I wasn’t particularly excited about seeing a ferruginous hawk there if only because I get pics of these guys often in the wild. They are common in northeastern Colorado, particularly during the winter.

But, the benefit of this event is it let me get far closer than what I can in the wild and the controlled environment gave me time to compose my shots and really try to nail them. Mission accomplished on this pic I believe.

Thank you to Nature’s Educators for the opportunity!

Oh, how I love these raptors. They are simply gorgeous and being the largest hawk in North America, quite impressive.

I happened across this one one month ago today as it perched in a tree overlooking a prairie dog colony. No doubt breakfast was on its mind and it was simply waiting and choosing its target.

We see these here in Colorado most often during the winter. A few stay year-round but soon they will become much more scarce.

It certainly would appear I got the attention of this guy / gal. 😉

I happened across this gorgeous ferruginous hawk this past Sunday as it sat perched on a pole keeping watch. These guys are usually relatively tolerant of humans but this one was far more so than normal. I was able to get some great closeups showing those awesome facial features and beautiful plumage.

Ferruginous hawks are the largest buteos in North America and from a distance, their size and profile may have them mistaken for eagles. While they can be found here in Colorado year-round, they are most common during the winter months.

With temperatures in the single digits, it is pretty hard to get moving so I can sympathize with this cool raptor. 😉

Ferruginous hawks are my favorite hawks and the dark morphs, well, they are even more special due to their rarity. I have seen a few this season but this is the first one so far that cooperated with me for pictures.

It was quite lackadaisical about the guy with the camera, observing for a bit, then finally doing a stretch and heading off to hunt. Certainly I would have preferred a more natural perch but it was a fun pose and I will take what I can get.

So much personality in that face which is why I love Ferruginous Hawks. Lighting was kind of cruddy when I took this pic this past Saturday but the look on this guy’s / gal’s face is priceless. Something tells me it really didn’t appreciate having its picture taken. See more of these cool raptors here.

How can you not just love these raptors? They are the largest buteo (hawk) in North America and one of the prettiest.

Their chests are mostly snow white in color and the plumage of their wings, back and head have a beautiful mix of grays and browns. Then of course you have that smile – I call it the ‘joker smile.’

Here is Colorado, we see lots of these during the winter. This particular one gave me a very nice flyby this past weekend.

A fun shot of a Ferruginous Hawk from this past weekend. The previous day had brought freezing drizzle and overnight temps in the teens kept things quite frozen into the next morning. The grasses were coated with ice but that didn’t stop this raptor from staking out a Prairie Dog colony and waiting for a chance to pounce.

With temperatures getting colder, I am seeing many more of these cool dudes and that makes me happy. They have beautiful plumage and the ‘joker smile’ of theirs is awesome.