When we finished walking the dogs after breakfast this morning, I saw a hawk perched on the roof of the neighbors’ house. I took the dogs in, grabbed my telephoto lens and went back out to take a photo of the bird. Shortly after I took the photo of the hawk perched, it took off and flew down toward the wash west of the house.
I consulted Stokes’ Field Guide to Birds and concluded that this bird is a red tailed hawk. The first entry in the guide indicated that red tails have “extremely variable plumage.” Red tails are also the most commonly seen hawk and range throughout most of the contiguous states and Mexico.
Click on the image to enlarge and on the link to see the perched hawk.