{"id":9085,"date":"2013-08-03T05:10:08","date_gmt":"2013-08-03T11:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=9085"},"modified":"2026-01-04T11:02:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:02:34","slug":"a-ragged-red-tailed-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/08\/03\/a-ragged-red-tailed-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"Ragged Red-tailed Hawk In Molt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RaggedyRagged Red-tailed Hawk – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of the adult Red-tailed Hawks that I saw and photographed in southwestern Montana on my last trip had worn feathers and were molting.<\/p>\n

Bird feathers are made from keratin, the same substance as our fingernails and even though the feathers are durable they do become worn and need to be replaced.<\/p>\n

The adult Red-tailed Hawk<\/span><\/a> in my image shows worn primaries or flight feathers and it looks a little ragged. As with most birds this Red-tailed will go through a regular and predictable molt and will look sleek when the molt is done.<\/p>\n

I think if I wore the same clothes every day for 365 days a year I’d look a bit ragged on occasion too.<\/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":"

Many of the adult Red-tailed Hawks that I saw and photographed in southwestern Montana on my last trip had worn feathers and were molting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166278,"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":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513,27,12,449],"tags":[4004,4021,2663,4170,4052,4122,4169,2312,2313,13920,5415,2318,2316,153,5414,5130,4209,2315,2317],"class_list":["post-9085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-avian","category-montana","category-red-tailed-hawks","tag-adult","tag-bird-photography","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-hawks","tag-molt","tag-molting","tag-mountain-valley","tag-predictable-molt","tag-primaries","tag-ragged","tag-raptors","tag-red-tail","tag-red-tailed","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-summer-3","tag-worn"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-molt-montana-mia-mcpherson-7585.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-2mx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40195,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/06\/26\/tattered-looking-molting-red-tailed-hawk\/","url_meta":{"origin":9085,"position":0},"title":"Tattered 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9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I also keep images of birds that look a bit messy because they are molting even if they aren't up to my standards, like this one-year-old Red-tailed Hawk that was rapidly molting the end of July in 2015.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rapid second pre-basic molt in a year old Red-tailed Hawk, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-molting-mia-mcpherson-0729.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-molting-mia-mcpherson-0729.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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