Week 41 – Sharp-shinned Hawk

 

Adult female Sharp-shinned Hawk. Photograph by Neil Paprocki.

This adult female Sharp-shinned Hawk was photographed from inside the trapping blind at HawkWatch International’s Goshute Mountains Raptor Migration Site.

The Goshutes are a remote field site without internet access, hence the lateness of this weeks photo. Since this isn’t a “free-flying” bird photo, it may be cheating, but the lighting inside the blind was just way to nice to pass up the opportunity to share this with everyone.

Sharp-shinned Hawks are a forest dwelling raptor found throughout North America. They are quite small, about the size of an American Kestrel, and prey almost exclusively on small birds. This bird was captured during fall migration, and after being released may end up as far south as Mexico for the winter.

All of the previous 52-week blog posts can be found at the Wild Lens blog or on Flickr.