{"id":53123,"date":"2018-07-17T05:29:39","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T11:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=53123"},"modified":"2026-01-21T13:11:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:11:47","slug":"sibling-red-tailed-hawk-juveniles-perched-on-the-wing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/07\/17\/sibling-red-tailed-hawk-juveniles-perched-on-the-wing\/","title":{"rendered":"Sibling Red-tailed Hawk Juveniles Perched & On The Wing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sibling Red-tailed Hawk Juveniles<\/h2>\n

Back in March of this year I started watching and photographing a pair of Red-tailed Hawks in the process of building their nest on the face of a high cliff. These two sibling Red-tailed Hawk juveniles are the results of the hard work of the pair of hawks I photographed in the spring. They hatched two young and both of them fledged.<\/p>\n

The female of that pair was the big, red Red-tailed<\/span><\/a> that I had trouble getting decent photographs of earlier this spring but was finally able to get decent images of her on the 8th of May. She is a stunner and although I saw her two days ago I wanted to focus this post on her gorgeous young that I found on the same morning.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk siblings on a lichen covered rock – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/2500, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first spotted the juvenile Red-tailed Hawks they were not together, but after the process of getting turned around to photograph the darker of the two young hawks the second, lighter juvenile flew in and joined its sibling on a lichen-covered rock. Both of the juvenile hawks called quite often when they weren’t just looking around. I didn’t know at this point in time that the female wasn’t far away to the south.\u00a0 The darker of the two young hawks had been feeding on something at the top of this rock when I first saw it but whatever it was eating was too small for me to identify.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk juvenile lifting off over its sibling – Nikon D500, f9, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

After a bit the darker juvenile, who may look very much like its gorgeous, rufous female parent when it is in adult plumage, lifted off over its sibling…<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk juvenile in flight at eye level – Nikon D500, f9, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

And flew to a marshy area to the east and landed on a clump of rushes where it called and called and called. I think it was still hungry and was hoping that one of the adults would bring it some prey to eat.<\/p>\n

I wish I had been with these juvenile Red-tailed Hawks about a half an hour to forty-five minutes earlier when the light would have been softer and the shadows less pronounced. It was only 8:10 in the morning when I took this photo, the sunlight gets harsh early at this time of the year.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk juvenile getting ready to lift off – Nikon D500, f9, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Later on the lighter of the two juvenile Red-tailed Hawks flew to a couple of different rocks on the hillside, it stayed for a while on this rock within view of its sibling who was still calling from the clump of rushes on the other side of the road.<\/p>\n

Eventually the young hawk took off and I said goodbye to these beautiful Red-tailed Hawk<\/span><\/a> siblings to head north up the road and towards home.<\/p>\n

I was delighted to see that these two survived fledging and I hope they do well their first year because the first year of their life will be the toughest.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/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":"

Back in March of this year I started watching and photographing a pair of Red-tailed Hawks in the process of building their nest on the face of a high cliff, these two juveniles are the results of the hard work of that pair of hawks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167275,"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":[27,1148,449,26],"tags":[2663,4170,4072,4052,4169,2386,4071,3291,5771,4282,4944,153,4209,4921,6641,3829,4193],"class_list":["post-53123","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-calling","tag-flight","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-juvenile","tag-lichen","tag-lichen-covered","tag-lift-off","tag-lifting-off","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-rock","tag-sibling","tag-siblings","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-flight-mia-mcpherson-4853.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dOP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":125754,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/03\/24\/immature-red-tailed-hawk-in-spring-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":53123,"position":0},"title":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk In Spring At Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 24, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"About two years ago, I photographed this immature Red-tailed Hawk near the Bear River, on my way out of the auto tour loop of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spring immature Red-tailed Hawk in grasses, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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Idaho","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When I found this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk on a lichen covered boulder in Idaho I took a little over 160 frames of it.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk on a lichen covered boulder, Clark County, Idaho","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-rock-mia-mcpherson-2054.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-rock-mia-mcpherson-2054.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-rock-mia-mcpherson-2054.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I spotted two of the other Red-tailed Hawk chicks that I have been following since early spring and was delighted that they have now fledged and have both learned to fly.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-tailed Hawk fledgling getting its balance, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-fledgling-mia-mcpherson-5318.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-fledgling-mia-mcpherson-5318.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-fledgling-mia-mcpherson-5318.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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