{"id":108170,"date":"2022-11-21T04:50:36","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T11:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=108170"},"modified":"2025-03-02T03:10:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T09:10:03","slug":"west-desert-dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/11\/21\/west-desert-dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"West Desert Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly three years have passed since I found, pointed out, and photographed this stunning dark morph Ferruginous Hawk in the West Desert of Utah.<\/p>\n

\"WestWest Desert dark morph Ferruginous Hawk \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 800, -1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Several weeks ago I found another dark morph Ferruginous Hawk in the same area. I couldn’t get photos of it because was simply too far away. That Ferruginous Hawk reminded me of this bird and the day I found it perched on a wooden post.<\/p>\n

I don’t find dark morph Ferruginous Hawks all that frequently. More often than not I find the light morphs of this species so it is a big deal for me to find a dark morph. I was super excited to find this one in such gorgeous light. This handsome hawk took my breath away.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Ferruginous Hawk lifting one foot \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 800, -1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I took just over 350 photos of this dark morph Ferruginous Hawk<\/span><\/a> that morning from a couple of spots along the road. This particular image was taken just before the hawk lifted off and flew over the sage and rabbitbrush dotted foothills.<\/p>\n

This handsome hawk was the only<\/em> bird that I found and photographed that day.<\/p>\n

\"StansburyStansbury mountain peak in the clouds \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/5000, ISO 800, -1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Later in the morning clouds moved in and hung over the mountain peaks. I took a few long distance photos of the views before my eyes. I loved the light snow on the conifers and how the clouds conveyed an almost mysterious mood to this image.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Ferruginous Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly three years have passed since I found, pointed out, and photographed this stunning dark morph Ferruginous Hawk in the West Desert of Utah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1069,1316,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,970,4268,2497,4101,5181,4530,4098,4620,898,2092,10011,7017,4033,4169,12631,6481,4069,10667,153,4470,10452,4050,4076,8917],"class_list":["post-108170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-ferruginous-hawks","category-stansbury-mountains-utah","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-buteo-regalis","tag-buteos","tag-clouds","tag-conifers","tag-dark-morph","tag-desert","tag-fall","tag-fence-post","tag-ferruginous-hawk","tag-foot","tag-foothills","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-lifting","tag-mountain","tag-mountains","tag-peak","tag-raptors","tag-rocks","tag-sky-island-mountains","tag-snow","tag-trees","tag-wooden-post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-4399.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-s8G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":118517,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/24\/dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk-in-the-west-desert\/","url_meta":{"origin":108170,"position":0},"title":"Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk In The West Desert","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Four years ago today, I found this gorgeous dark morph Ferruginous Hawk perched on a juniper fence post in the West Desert. I spotted it from about a mile away.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lifting off dark morph Ferruginous Hawk, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-4510.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-4510.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-4510.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Morphs","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The past couple of weeks on some of my journeys to the West Desert of Utah I have been able to have a few long distance views of Ferruginous Hawks and that has me excited.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rousing immature Ferruginous Hawk on a fence post in the West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ferruginous-hawk-light-morph-immature-rousing-mia-mcpherson-7500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ferruginous-hawk-light-morph-immature-rousing-mia-mcpherson-7500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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