{"id":47649,"date":"2017-07-11T04:42:13","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T10:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=47649"},"modified":"2026-01-19T07:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:36:52","slug":"five-different-centennial-valley-red-tailed-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/07\/11\/five-different-centennial-valley-red-tailed-hawks\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Different Centennial Valley Red-tailed Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Post-poopPost-poop look from a Red-tailed Hawk\u00a0 – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Good morning from Idaho! The weather mostly cooperated yesterday and so did the birds. Or, I guess I should say that I was able to get my lens on some birds in decent light, at a decent distance which returned decent results.<\/p>\n

Red-tailed Hawks were my most photographed species yesterday morning in the Centennial Valley of southwestern Montana and I had fun with them. The photo above shows the look I got from an adult Red-tailed Hawk right after the hawk let “it” fly, by “it” I mean the hawk took a dump.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk balancing on a wire\u00a0 – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I photographed one that appeared to be getting ready for\u00a0 tightrope walk on a high wire. Truthfully I don’t see Red-tailed Hawks perched on wires all that often but they do perch on wires.<\/p>\n

\"BleachedBleached blond Red-tailed Hawk\u00a0 – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

And this beauty looks like it got a bad bleach job at a beauty shop but the sun actually bleached the feathers on the Red-tailed Hawk’s head.<\/p>\n

This is normal for this time of the year and the head feathers will soon molt. Also, this hawk still has light eyes of a sub-adult but the tail of an adult Red-tailed.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Red-tailed Hawk on a gnarly fence\u00a0 – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/800, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The I photographed one Red-tailed Hawk juvenile from a brood of four! The other three juveniles were across the road in bad light so I focused on this one until two women birders in a dark blue pickup drove up and chased it away.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk adult on a fence post painted red\u00a0 – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

And finally a Red-tailed Hawk on a fence post painted red in front of a hillside covered in conifers and below that a field of sage and lupines. When gates and fence posts are painted red that means “NO hunting” and the owner of the land is serious about that.<\/p>\n

Five different Centennial Valley Red-tailed Hawks<\/span><\/a>, same valley but in different locations in the valley and each of them were a joy to photograph.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. I love birds.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Red-tailed Hawks were my most photographed species yesterday morning in the Centennial Valley of southwestern Montana and I had fun with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167179,"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":[1513,27,223,12,449],"tags":[4004,2663,17088,4170,3830,4033,4169,2237,4071,2312,13920,4104,4394,5414,5959,4209,2315,2765],"class_list":["post-47649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-avian","category-centennial-valley","category-montana","category-red-tailed-hawks","tag-adult","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-bleached","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-fence","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-montana","tag-juvenile","tag-molt","tag-mountain-valley","tag-perched","tag-post","tag-red-tail","tag-red-taliled","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-summer-3","tag-wire"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-post-poop-mia-mcpherson-9264.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cox","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25566,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/06\/20\/a-red-tailed-hawk-just-after-lift-off\/","url_meta":{"origin":47649,"position":0},"title":"Red-tailed 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