{"id":99849,"date":"2022-02-12T05:12:05","date_gmt":"2022-02-12T12:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=99849"},"modified":"2022-02-12T05:16:20","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T12:16:20","slug":"four-immature-red-tailed-hawk-portraits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/02\/12\/four-immature-red-tailed-hawk-portraits\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Immature Red-tailed Hawk Portraits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days ago I was able to take a nice series of immature Red-tailed Hawk portraits on my most recent trip up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"FebruaryFebruary immature Red-tailed Hawk close up \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The young hawk was perched on a wooden post close to the edge of the road. I pulled over on the shoulder of the opposite side of the road as far as I could so I wouldn’t impede traffic and so that I wouldn’t have to move my Jeep if other cars came along.<\/p>\n

The hawk was scanning the open fields to the east, west and south of the road for prey.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Red-tailed Hawk head on portrait \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though I was on the far side of the road I still had too much glass to fit the immature Red-tailed Hawk’s body and tail into the viewfinder of my camera. I decided to take portraits of the bird.<\/p>\n

\"FebruaryFebruary immature Red-tailed Hawk portrait \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Two frames after I took this photo the young Red-tailed Hawk dove down into a ditch after prey. When the raptor missed what ever food it was after the hawk flew up and landed on another post that was as close to the road as the first wooden post was.<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Red-tailed Hawk looking for prey \u2013 Nikon D500, f10, 1\/500, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I slowly moved my vehicle forward a few feet and took another series of photos of the immature Red-tailed Hawk on the second wooden post. The hawk took off and dove for prey seconds after I took this close up. Sadly it missed the prey again. When the handsome young raptor took flight from the ground it flew across the road in front of my Jeep and headed southwest towards a fence line that was a long way from the road.<\/p>\n

I was delighted to have this immature Red-tailed Hawk in my viewfinder for a total of 135 frames.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Red-tailed Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two days ago I was able to take a nice series of immature Red-tailed Hawk portraits on my most recent trip up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99838,"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":[4007,4008,4170,2497,4142,4033,4169,5023,3970,4067,6865,4104,4046,4106,11852,153,4209,30,8917,4193],"class_list":["post-99849","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-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","tag-box-elder-county","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-buteos","tag-close-up","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-head-on","tag-hunting","tag-immature","tag-looking","tag-perched","tag-portrait","tag-prey","tag-ranchlands","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-utah-2","tag-wooden-post","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-portrait-mia-mcpherson-1175.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-pYt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":120820,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/02\/10\/young-red-tailed-hawk-up-close\/","url_meta":{"origin":99849,"position":0},"title":"Young Red-tailed Hawk Up Close","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 10, 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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-portrait-mia-mcpherson-1156.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-portrait-mia-mcpherson-1156.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":125754,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/03\/24\/immature-red-tailed-hawk-in-spring-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":99849,"position":1},"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, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-tailed-hawk-on-the-ground-mia-mcpherson-5657.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-tailed-hawk-on-the-ground-mia-mcpherson-5657.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-tailed-hawk-on-the-ground-mia-mcpherson-5657.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-tailed-hawk-on-the-ground-mia-mcpherson-5657.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":98794,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/01\/09\/riverbank-red-tailed-hawk-dining-al-fresco\/","url_meta":{"origin":99849,"position":2},"title":"Riverbank Red-tailed Hawk Dining Al Fresco","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning I photographed an immature Red-tailed Hawk dining al fresco on the bank of the Bear River on my way back to I-15 to head home.","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":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk eating prey on the Bear River, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-river-side-eating-mia-mcpherson-5558.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-river-side-eating-mia-mcpherson-5558.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-river-side-eating-mia-mcpherson-5558.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-river-side-eating-mia-mcpherson-5558.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":61311,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/10\/immature-red-tailed-hawk-close-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":99849,"position":3},"title":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk Close Up","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","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":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk in front of a field of grass, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-sepia-shades-mia-mcpherson-0309.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-immature-sepia-shades-mia-mcpherson-0309.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-sepia-shades-mia-mcpherson-0309.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-sepia-shades-mia-mcpherson-0309.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":107573,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/28\/desert-red-tailed-hawk-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":99849,"position":4},"title":"Desert Red-tailed Hawk Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 28, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"While I was up in far northern Utah looking for birds last week, I took quite a few Red-tailed Hawk photos. I shared one image a few days ago and here are a few more.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk taking off from a cliff, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-desert-mia-mcpherson-2032.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-desert-mia-mcpherson-2032.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-desert-mia-mcpherson-2032.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-desert-mia-mcpherson-2032.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":63123,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/21\/red-tailed-hawk-on-rusting-farm-machinery\/","url_meta":{"origin":99849,"position":5},"title":"Red-tailed Hawk On Rusting Farm Machinery","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When I spotted an adult Red-tailed Hawk on one of the pieces of rusty machinery two days ago on my way home from the auto tour route at the refuge I knew I had to get some photos of it.","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":"Adult Red-tailed Hawk perched on old, rusty farm machinery, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-rusty-old-farm-equipment-mia-mcpherson-4367.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-rusty-old-farm-equipment-mia-mcpherson-4367.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-rusty-old-farm-equipment-mia-mcpherson-4367.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-rusty-old-farm-equipment-mia-mcpherson-4367.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}