What kind of bird of prey??

Ann McRae

So, I've passed this yard several times and noted birds of prey on the Inukshuk - sometimes one, sometimes two. My longest lens is my 70 - 200, and this is one of those times I was wishing for a 400 or a bigma...

anyway, I managed a mediocre shot of what I thought might be an eagle....but then I had a look at this on the 'puter, and I think it is a hawk:



Guess you can't tell from this one, so here is a tight (TIGHT) crop:


ann

z_28

For me looks as a falcon, but I'm not professional birdie

jwear

Ann do some research on a swainsons hawk [if they are in your area ] that may be one

Ann McRae

Thanks Jeff. Yes, Swainson's are resident here. Here is a description (unfortunately, my metric doesn't extend to measuring in cms...):

[FONT=arial,helvetica] Description: A very common hawk on the Alberta prairies, the Swainson's Hawk is charaterised by a dark "bib" and dark flight feathers. In the light phase the belly and wing linings are creamy. Swainson' may also have a dark morph where the entire bird is dark making identification difficult. The Swainson's is a large hawk measuring 48-56cm long with a wingspan of about 132cm. As with most raptors, females are generally larger than males.[/FONT] [FONT=arial,helvetica]Distribution: In Alberta, the Swainson's hawk is a bird of the prairies, found mostly south of the North Saskatchewan River and east of the Rocky Mountains. It is perhaps the most common hawk found in the region.
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[FONT=arial,helvetica]This particular bird is much larger than the great horned owl that I photographed last year. Hmmm, but 56 cm is 22 inches, so maybe.
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[FONT=arial,helvetica]Thanks for the tip, Jeff.
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ann
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jwear wrote:

Ann do some research on a swainsons hawk [if they are in your area ] that may be one