{"id":61311,"date":"2019-11-10T05:40:59","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T12:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=61311"},"modified":"2026-01-23T13:32:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:32:57","slug":"immature-red-tailed-hawk-close-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/10\/immature-red-tailed-hawk-close-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk Close Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ImmatureImmature Red-tailed Hawk in front of a field of grass \u2013 Nikon D500, f10, 1\/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

All my life I have heard people saying that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and I believe that to be true.<\/p>\n

Yesterday after leaving the auto tour route at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> I spotted a beautiful immature Red-tailed Hawk perched on a post next to the road and even though the light angle wasn’t great and I wasn’t photographing when there was golden light I took a series of images of the young hawk as it looked around the area for prey.<\/p>\n

The hawk was gorgeous, confiding and didn’t seem to be bothered at all by my presence because I used my Jeep as a mobile blind. Young hawks can be more approachable than mature hawks.<\/p>\n

The thing about this immature Red-tailed Hawk photo is this: I don’t like the background color because I see these colors, tones and hues so frequently where I live in northern Utah. I don’t hate them, I’ve just grown to not care for them in my images.<\/p>\n

The background in this photo is out of focus grasses bleached out by the sun.<\/p>\n

However; I recognize that other people may like this photo because of the color of the background for various reasons so I didn’t just dump the whole series of images that I took of this regal young hawk.<\/p>\n

I know that I could swap out the background in post processing for sky, cliff, forest, or canyon walls but that simply doesn’t work for me because I want my images to convey what I was seeing at the time I took the photo, whatever that may have been.<\/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":"

The thing about this immature Red-tailed Hawk photo is this: I don’t like the background color because I see these colors, tones and hues so frequently where I live in northern Utah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167456,"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":[124,27,1148,449,26],"tags":[2663,4170,2497,4142,4033,4169,4067,4094,4046,153,4209,5300,7942,4193],"class_list":["post-61311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-utah","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-buteos","tag-close-up","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-immature","tag-marsh","tag-portrait","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-roadside","tag-sepia","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-sepia-shades-mia-mcpherson-0309.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-fWT","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":61311,"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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2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The day I photographed this young Red-tailed Hawk, I took 135 images of the immature raptor in just a little over a minute at 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":"Young Red-tailed Hawk up close, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-portrait-mia-mcpherson-1156.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-portrait-mia-mcpherson-1156.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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