{"id":3627,"date":"2011-11-07T09:16:28","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T15:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=3627"},"modified":"2021-09-23T19:01:14","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T01:01:14","slug":"ferruginous-hawk-a-regal-raptor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/11\/07\/ferruginous-hawk-a-regal-raptor\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferruginous Hawk – A Regal Raptor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FerruginousFerruginous Hawk with wings up – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/4000, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited or set up<\/span><\/p>\n

I love to say “Ferruginous”, I’m not sure exactly why but I think it is a fun word to pronounce, especially when I roll the “R’s”. Yes, it is probably a little odd to enjoy saying it so much but I don’t apologize for it! I love to say “Flammulated” too.<\/p>\n

Ferruginous Hawks (Buteo regalis<\/em>) are the largest hawks found in North America. The “regalis” in the Latin name means “kingly” or “regal” and I have to agree with those descriptions. The English name; “Ferruginous”, means “rusty” and that also describes some of this hawk’s coloring very well.<\/p>\n

\"FerruginousFerruginous Hawk lift off from a weather monitoring station – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 640, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 355mm, natural light, not baited or set up<\/span><\/p>\n

Ferruginous Hawks are found in western North America in terrains from grasslands to open deserts. I often see them perched on utility poles, old snags, on top of sagebrush bushes\u00a0or where I often find this species in Tooele County, on top of a small weather reporting station. My bad timing allowed the weather station to still be obvious in the photo above but these large raptors do take off quick and I wanted a series of shots as it lifted off, this was the first frame of that series.<\/p>\n

I haven’t had the best of luck getting quality photos of this species, it seems that quite often they take off facing away from me and I like having eye contact with my subject. Once I spotted one slowly flying in to where I stood but alas I didn’t have my camera in hand. I told a friend to grab his camera and he got some decent images whilst I got nothing but a great view of the\u00a0Ferruginous flying low and slow over my head. I hope my luck changes. Or I’ll\u00a0need to seriously consider spending a lot of time waiting where I know I see these raptors.<\/p>\n

\"FlightFlight shot of Ferruginous Hawk with wings down – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/3200, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited or set up<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday I found this Ferruginous Hawk perched twice on the weather station so I was able to get two series of lift off shots and was quite pleased to have those opportunities. I like that the image above shows the “rusty” plumage on the wing, shoulder and back of this gorgeous hawk. I have not seen the dark morph of this species yet though I understand they are equally as stunning as the light morph.<\/p>\n

Any time I see a Ferruginous (rolling my “R’s”) Hawk, they take my breath away<\/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":"

Ferruginous Hawks are the largest hawks found in North America, the “regalis” in the latin name means “kingly” or “regal” and I have to agree with those descriptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1069,358,26],"tags":[4004,970,2663,4268,2497,4098,4620,2092,4052,4122,4033,4169,2386,4282,2670,153,4018,4088],"class_list":["post-3627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-ferruginous-hawks","category-tooele-county","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-regalis","tag-buteos","tag-desert","tag-fall","tag-ferruginous-hawk","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-lift-off","tag-light-morph","tag-raptors","tag-sky","tag-west-desert"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ferruginous-hawk-mia-mcpherson-pano-6836.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-Wv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":108965,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/12\/23\/immature-ferruginous-hawk-in-december\/","url_meta":{"origin":3627,"position":0},"title":"Immature Ferruginous Hawk In December","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I was overjoyed to see an immature light morph Ferruginous Hawk in my viewfinder four years ago in December while I was out in Utah's West Desert.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Light morph Ferruginous Hawk with its eyes on the clouds, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/ferruginous-hawk-eyes-on-the-clouds-mia-mcpherson-5001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/ferruginous-hawk-eyes-on-the-clouds-mia-mcpherson-5001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/ferruginous-hawk-eyes-on-the-clouds-mia-mcpherson-5001.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/ferruginous-hawk-eyes-on-the-clouds-mia-mcpherson-5001.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":118517,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/24\/dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk-in-the-west-desert\/","url_meta":{"origin":3627,"position":1},"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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