{"id":75475,"date":"2020-11-23T06:26:25","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T13:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=75475"},"modified":"2026-01-24T11:38:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:38:52","slug":"cozy-red-tailed-hawks-and-finches-galore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/11\/23\/cozy-red-tailed-hawks-and-finches-galore\/","title":{"rendered":"Cozy Red-tailed Hawks And Finches Galore"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PairPair of Red-tailed Hawks side by side on a rocky ledge \u2013 Nikon D500, f11, 1\/250, ISO 500, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday morning the first birds I spotted and photographed was a pair of adult Red-tailed Hawks side by side on a rocky ledge in early morning light. I took quite a few photos of this pair of hawks and I am sure that I will share more of them sometime in the future.<\/p>\n

I believe these are resident pair of Red-tailed Hawks and sedentary (nonmigratory) Red-tailed Hawks retain their pair bond throughout the year. This may be a pair of Red-tailed Hawks that I photographed earlier in the year nesting on a cliff face not far from where I found them yesterday in which case I also photographed their fledglings not long after they had left their nest. These hawks looked rather cozy to me perched together in the cool morning air. I saw a low of 17\u00b0F on my way to this location.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Goldfinch perched on a leafless sumac \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The other birds I photographed in abundance yesterday morning were finches. There were so many American Goldfinches and Pine Siskins below where the Red-tailed Hawks were perched that I had a hard time deciding which birds to aim my lens at so I focused on them all intermittently and switched up the birds over and over.<\/p>\n

There is a freshwater seep in the area which draws the smaller birds in along with shrubs that provide shelter and food. My sit and wait approach in this area continues to pay off year after year with wonderful birds that I love to photograph.<\/p>\n

The American Goldfinches are in their nonbreeding plumage and although they are not as bright as they are in their breeding plumage now I enjoy seeing their soft and subtle colors.<\/p>\n

\"PinePine Siskin perched on a leafless sumac \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The zhree<\/span><\/a> calls of the Pine Siskins combined with the flight calls<\/span><\/a> of the goldfinches yesterday kept my ears buzzing and happy as I photographed them. I think there were equal numbers of Pine Siskins and American Goldfinches yesterday flitting around, calling, and perching on the nearby wild roses, sumacs and rabbitbrush and cattails.<\/p>\n

It was a great morning to be out in the field with the birds.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my bird photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning the first birds I spotted and photographed was a pair of adult Red-tailed Hawks side by side on a rocky ledge in early morning light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167533,"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":[2715,27,1148,1210,449,26],"tags":[4004,2716,970,2663,4008,4170,2497,4299,4098,4620,4070,3504,3495,6767,10542,6198,6199,4033,4169,2386,9891,10653,3291,4062,4378,4246,4104,3493,10596,153,4209,6768,5699,7474,6456,6103,6104,4018,2717,7630,30],"class_list":["post-75475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-goldfinches","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-pine-siskins","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-american-goldfinch","tag-autumn","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-box-elder-county","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-buteos","tag-carduelis-pinus","tag-desert","tag-fall","tag-female","tag-finch","tag-finches","tag-fragrant-sumac","tag-freshwater-seep","tag-goldfinch","tag-goldfinches","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-leafless","tag-ledge","tag-lichen","tag-male","tag-morning","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-perched","tag-pine-siskin","tag-prched","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-rhus-aromatica","tag-rocky","tag-seep","tag-side-by-side","tag-siskin","tag-siskins","tag-sky","tag-spinus-tristis","tag-sumac","tag-utah-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawks-pair-adult-mia-mcpherson-5221.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-jDl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41960,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/09\/13\/red-tailed-hawk-lifting-off-from-a-nest-in-box-elder-county\/","url_meta":{"origin":75475,"position":0},"title":"Red-tailed 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McPherson","date":"September 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I enjoyed seeing the Red-tailed Hawks yesterday and observing their nesting maintenance behavior in the Fall, I don't see it very often so it makes it special to me.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Red-tailed Hawk in its nest in the Fall, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-nest-fall-mia-mcpherson-4407.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-nest-fall-mia-mcpherson-4407.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-nest-fall-mia-mcpherson-4407.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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