{"id":61663,"date":"2019-11-24T05:19:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T12:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=61663"},"modified":"2023-11-24T03:22:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T10:22:04","slug":"dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk-photographed-in-early-morning-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/24\/dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk-photographed-in-early-morning-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk Photographed In Early Morning Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can’t be 100% positive that this dark morph Ferruginous Hawk is the same dark morph I photographed on November 17th<\/span><\/a> but due to the relatively low numbers of dark morphs of this species I am fairly certain that it is the same bird.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Ferruginous Hawk in early morning light – Nikon D500, f5.6, 1\/1000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, I photographed this dark morph Ferruginous Hawk in about the same location so this hawk, if it is indeed the same bird, may be sticking around because of prey availability.<\/p>\n

When I spotted and pointed out this Ferruginous Hawk yesterday morning it wasn’t hunting, it was resting on a fence post with foothills behind it. This image was taken at a distance where I took a nice series of the dark hawk.<\/p>\n

\"RestingResting dark morph Ferruginous Hawk in early morning light – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The early morning light looked spectacular on the dark plumage of this Ferruginous Hawk and seemed to make it glow against the distant foothills.<\/p>\n

This image was taken after slowly moving towards the resting raptor. There were no signs of the bird being distressed by the vehicle. This is a rather busy road and raptors seem to get used to the presence of vehicles moving up and down the road.<\/p>\n

\"EarlyEarly morning dark morph Ferruginous Hawk – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 800, -1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

These last three photos were taken after moving towards the dark Ferruginous Hawk at a snail’s pace.<\/p>\n

In this photo I can see a little bit of frost clinging to the upper back of the hawk. I’d seen a low of 20\u00b0F earlier in the morning so I wasn’t really surprised to see frost on this bird’s feathers especially since the sunlight had probably only started to warm the bird up.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Ferruginous Hawk with a bloody bill – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 800, -1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I was able to see that the hawk still had some blood on its bill from its last meal as it rested on top of the wooden fence post.<\/p>\n

I photograph birds all the time and there are a few that simply take my breath away and totally mesmerize me, this dark morph Ferruginous Hawk is one of those birds. It mesmerized me so much that I didn’t even think about taking off my teleconverter, I was that deeply immersed in viewing its beauty through my viewfinder.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Ferruginous Hawk getting ready to lift off – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 800, -1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I wasn’t fully prepared when the dark morph Ferruginous Hawk finally lifted off without any warning, not even a shake of its feathers. This photo was taken just as it started to lift off, the images I took after this one were lovely but every one of them had a portion of the bird out of the frame because I hadn’t removed my teleconverter. Live and learn.<\/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":"

I photograph birds all the time and there are a few that simply take my breath away and totally mesmerize me, this dark morph Ferruginous Hawk is one of those birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95373,"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":[27,1069,358,26,1314],"tags":[5552,2663,8023,4268,2497,4530,4224,6692,898,2092,7017,4169,2386,4282,153,4156,10452],"class_list":["post-61663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-ferruginous-hawks","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-bill","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-bloody","tag-buteo-regalis","tag-buteos","tag-dark-morph","tag-early-morning","tag-early-morning-light","tag-fence-post","tag-ferruginous-hawk","tag-foothills","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-lift-off","tag-raptors","tag-resting","tag-sky-island-mountains"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-4400-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-g2z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":108170,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/11\/21\/west-desert-dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk\/","url_meta":{"origin":61663,"position":0},"title":"West Desert Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Nearly three years have passed since I found, pointed out, and photographed this stunning dark morph Ferruginous Hawk in the West Desert of Utah.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dark morph Ferruginous Hawk lifting one foot, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-4399.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-4399.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-4399.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-4399.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":61663,"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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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, 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dark morph Ferruginous Hawk in flight over a field, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-flight-mia-mcpherson-3648.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-flight-mia-mcpherson-3648.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-flight-mia-mcpherson-3648.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-flight-mia-mcpherson-3648.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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