{"id":46669,"date":"2017-05-09T05:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=46669"},"modified":"2026-01-18T11:25:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:25:06","slug":"molting-one-year-old-red-tailed-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/05\/09\/molting-one-year-old-red-tailed-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"Molting One-Year-Old Red-tailed Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RapidRapid second pre-basic molt in a year old Red-tailed Hawk – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

There are times I save photos that I have taken that might not be sharp or aren’t the best quality, sometimes it is for documenting a rarity, interesting behavior, or because I find the subject fascinating but wasn’t able to take high quality images due to circumstances beyond my control, like photographing when the engine is still on.<\/p>\n

I have an image in a book about birds in Pinellas County, Florida birds that makes me cringe every time I think about it because I was photographing a White-tailed Kite hovering over a fresh water lagoon with the sun behind it.<\/p>\n

The images of that kite were just awful but that was the first record of a White-tailed Kite in the county in over 90 years. So I allowed the use of a crappy image in that book for the confirmation of the record.<\/p>\n

I also keep images of birds that look a bit messy because they are molting even if they aren’t up to my standards, like this one-year-old Red-tailed Hawk that was rapidly molting the end of July in 2015. Not a beautiful hawk in molt but still fascinating to me.<\/p>\n

\"Molting,Molting, ratty looking Red-tailed Hawk – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The Red-tail was next to a country road and stopping was difficult because of traffic, as I recall a combine was coming up the road so all of the images I took were on the fly, no time to change settings or anything.<\/p>\n

The head feathers are light on this hawk because they were bleached out by the sun but it was the messy, ragged looking tail feathers transitioning to what we normally see in a Red-tailed Hawk that caught my eye first.<\/p>\n

I sent these images to Peter Pyle; author of the\u00a0Identification Guide to North American Birds<\/em>, biologist and bird expert, who has used a few of my photos for an article on molting birds in the ABA<\/span><\/a>‘s Birding magazine and he wrote this about my hawk:<\/p>\n

“For this RTHA, which is undergoing a rather rapid second-prebasic molt at a year of age. The two brown feathers in the right wing are the 4th and 9th secondaries (from the outside), typically the last secondaries replaced as I discuss in the article.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"FlightFlight image of molting one-year-old Red-tailed Hawk – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

This photo is terrible but I wanted to include it because it shows the ratty looking tail of this molting Red-tailed Hawk so well.<\/p>\n

Right now our Red-tailed Hawks don’t look messy but as the summer goes on I will probably find more ratty looking, molting birds like this one.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. Birds make it better.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

I also keep images of birds that look a bit messy because they are molting even if they aren’t up to my standards, like this one-year-old Red-tailed Hawk that was rapidly molting the end of July in 2015. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167146,"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":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1148,449,26],"tags":[2663,4170,4052,4169,2386,4067,2312,2313,1052,4104,5862,153,5414,4209,5048],"class_list":["post-46669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-utah","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-flight","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-immature","tag-molt","tag-molting","tag-one-year-old","tag-perched","tag-rapid","tag-raptors","tag-red-tail","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-second-prebasic-molt"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-molting-mia-mcpherson-0729.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-c8J","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40195,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/06\/26\/tattered-looking-molting-red-tailed-hawk\/","url_meta":{"origin":46669,"position":0},"title":"Tattered 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2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This adult Red-tailed flew by at close range which gave me a very nice view of the underside of its wing that shows it was also molting though it didn't look as raggedy as some of the other adult Red-tailed Hawks looked.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Red-tailed Hawk close up fly by, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-flight-molt-mia-mcpherson-7031.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-flight-molt-mia-mcpherson-7031.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-flight-molt-mia-mcpherson-7031.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-flight-molt-mia-mcpherson-7031.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43116,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/15\/partially-leucistic-adult-red-tailed-hawk-in-flight-a-rare-and-wonderful-sight\/","url_meta":{"origin":46669,"position":3},"title":"Partially Leucistic Adult Red-tailed Hawk in Flight – A Rare and Wonderful Sight!","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When the partially leucistic Red-tailed Hawk lifted off from the power pole I was able to capture photos of it in flight and I was stunned by the beauty of the hawk, pictures do not do this bird justice.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Leucistic Red-tailed Hawk adult in flight, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-leucistic-mia-mcpherson-3799.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-leucistic-mia-mcpherson-3799.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-leucistic-mia-mcpherson-3799.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-leucistic-mia-mcpherson-3799.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Sky","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There are issues with this image which I will cover shortly but I really liked the pose of this Red-tailed Hawk, the spread of the wings, the flared tail and the great eye contact I was able to capture as the Red-tail looked down towards me as it flew in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Red-tailed Hawk in Montana\u2019s sky, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County, 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