Posts in Category: hawk
Uganda Edition: Immature Bateleur
Bateleur: Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — We looked through 3 National Parks and along the roads between them for an adult Bateleur, which is among the most beautiful of Hawk-Eagles, and though we saw several immatures, we never did see an adult. This immature was along the road on our way to the boat trip on Lake Mburo on our first afternoon there. Note the round, owl-like face and the short tail. Without the bold colors of the adult, the shape is identifying characteristic of the bird. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/800th.
Double-toothed Kite
Double-toothed Kite: Playa Blanco, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — It is, according to the field guides and eBird, rare to see a Double-toothed Kite perched…and I would guess even rarer to see one perched in amongst a flock of noisy Scarlet Macaws, but this bird was perched on the lower branches of the same tree the Macaws were in…bold a brass! The guides also say it can be “quite tame” when perched and it certainly was. It allowed us to move around under it and take as many photos as we wanted. I have included a deep crop of the head to show off the double-tooth, which again, according to the field guides, is “rarely seen.” It is pretty clear in this shot. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 640, 400, and 500 in the shade dappled light @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Roadside Hawk
Roadside Hawk: Rincon, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — On our way back from the Rincon River Bridge and our search for the Yellow-billed Cotinga, still before breakfast, we came up on this hawk sitting on the wires by the road. It is, of course, a Roadside Hawk…the most common hawk of the lowland tropical Americas…with a range from the US border (it is occasionally seen in extreme South Texas) to Northern Argentina and Uruguay. Costa Rica has two of the 12 recognized subspecies. This is the one that inhabits southwest Costa Rica and the adjacent Panama. Seeing this bird, so close and so cooperative, only a yards from the windows of our tourist van, we had a brief discussion of what it might be called if there were no roads…or what it might have been called when there were no roads. It is certainly a hawk of the openings and edges, and is, therefore, closely associated with roads, which are often the first openings in any forest where man travels or lives. I said they were all thinking backwards…roads are called roads because that is where you see the Roadside Hawks from. 🙂 (Okay, I know, but remember it was still before breakfast.) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. (These photos were actually taken across the width of the van through an open window, so we were indeed pretty close.) Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Uganda Edition: Augur Buzzard
Augur Buzzard: In the foothills somewhere between Ishasha Sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — We drove from Ishasha to Bwindi on the dirt tracks…barely dignified enough to be called roads, though they see a lot of heavy truck traffic headed south and west (or north and east), and stopped in a section of forest to bird for a few miles. Just before we got there, we passed this Augur Buzzard sitting in a tree beside the road as though waiting for us to pass. The Augur Buzzard looks and acts a lot like our Red-tailed Hawk…has a red tail (easier to see in flight as it is short), and at least two color morphs as well. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Grey-headed Kite
Grey-headed Kite: I spotted this bird sitting above the road as we traveled from Danta Corcovado Lodge on the Osa Peninsula to the Wilson Botanical Gardens in the southern foothills in Costa Rica today. I called it a White-hawk, but after we backed up far enough to see it properly, Mario (our guide) recognized it as a Grey-headed Kite. Though it has a wide range in the foothills and lowlands of both slopes in Costa Rica, it is listed as “uncommon”…so we were privileged to have spotted it. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f5.6 and 4.5 @ 1/1000th.
African Hawk-Eagle
African Hawk-Eagle: Bigodi Community Birding Project, Bigodi, Uganda, August 2022 — We saw this bird in a distant perch on our way out of the Bigodi Community Birding walk. We worked our way slowly closer (but never very close), but there was still active debate among our three local guides as to what it was. The consensus eventually was African Hawk-Eagle. It is actually an Accipitor, like our Cooper’s Hawk, but larger, and (now that I know that) it definitely has that Accipitor look. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 and 6.3 @ 1/1000th.
Immature Bateleur
Immature Bateleur: Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — We must have seen a dozen immature Bateleurs. The adult Bateleur is a very distinctive African Hawk-Eagle, mostly black with bright orange-red bill and cere, and deep rust between the wings on the back. Both male and female have grey wing coverts on the shoulder and the female as a grey panel across the flight feathers. Along with the short tailed, big headed look, it is a very striking and unmistakable bird. The immatures share the shape, but are plain brown with a pale bluish bill and cere. Not nearly as exciting :). Still we were always happy to see them…especially since each sighting fueled our hope of seeing an adult in the area…but we never did. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Black Kite
Black Kite: Entebbe Botanical Gardens: Entebbe, Uganda, August 2022 — by far the most common raptor we saw in Uganda was the Black Kite…and we saw it every day, where ever we traveled in our loop through the parks of the south-west corner of the country…mostly in the air, but occasionally, as here at the Entebbe Botanical Gardens, perched. Sony Rx10iv at 591 and 600mm equivalents. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th and 1/640th. Plus 1.3EV exposure compensation.
Black Hawk Eagle
Black Hawk Eagle: Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — As we were driving down from the Tower on my first full birding day at Canopy Tower in Panama, I glimpsed a raptor sitting in a dead snag across the sharp little valley of the stream that that road follows down, silhouetted against the overcast sky. My immediate reaction was Crested Hawk Eagle as, at the moment I saw it, it had its crest raised. (The Crested Hawk Eagle is actually an African Bird…though the name was commonly used for what is now called the Ornate Hawk Eagle in Central America.) We were in the Canopy Tower Birdmobile…a 4 wheel drive pick-up with two bench seats mounted back to back in the open bed of the truck, facing left and right. I pounded on the roof of the cab and called out Hawk Eagle to make the driver stop. We backed up until we re-found the gap in the foreground foliage that gave us the best view of the bird. It was, indeed, a Hawk Eagle, and it did have a crest…but it was the Black Hawk Eagle…and perched…a rare sight indeed! The photo is not great…but the bird was far away against the cloudy sky in poor light and barely visible through foreground foliage…so, all in all, after some serious post-processing, I am pleased with a record shot. There would be people who doubted we saw what we saw without it 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. (In the original the bird is so heavily silhouetted that you can see no detail at all, and tiny in the frame.) ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1EV exposure compensation.
Maine spring edition: American Kestrel
American Kestrel: Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, Wells, Maine, USA, April 2022 — It was too cool to ride my trike the other day, despite being a lovely sunny spring day, so I took a walk at Laudholm Farms to see how spring was getting on there. This Kestrel was working the forest edge along the southern boundary of the farm, where it butts up against a chunk of Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge land. It would not give me any better view than this, but I will take what is on offer and be happy. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f5.6 @ 1/1000th.