Raptors of Yellowstone: Eagles, Hawks and Ospreys

The Raptors page contains images of Bald Eagles, a light-morph juvenile Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk,
an intermediate morph Red-tailed Hawk in flight, and an Osprey with prey both perched and in flight.

Several images of these birds which were taken at different locations are included to add context.

Click an image to open a larger version.
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Sandhill Cranes Trumpeter Swans Raptors

Great Blue Heron and American Avocet Assorted Birds

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Eagles Red-Tailed Hawks Osprey

Bald Eagle 8607c

A Bald Eagle stands watch near a long-established nest alongside the
Madison River near the Western entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

Bald Eagles typically choose a perch near water which has unrestricted visibility allowing them to
scan the entire area for prey. They often select the top of a tree, but when perched below the treetop
they prefer trees with open structures that allow them to land and take off without restricting their wings.

Bald Eagle 8609

Bald Eagle 8612

This Bald Eagle is one of about two dozen nesting pairs in Yellowstone National Park.
This nest on the Madison River 6-7 miles from the West Entrance attracts a lot of attention.

Bald Eagle in Nest 0030

A Bald Eagle attends an enormous nest at the top of a dead tree in Yellowstone National Park.

This nest is over 9 feet in diameter and weighs more than 4000 pounds. It is one of four nests on
this section of the Madison River. Bald Eagles reuse nests, adding to them each year, and they can
be very large. The record nest was 20 feet deep and 10 feet in diameter, weighing nearly 6000 pounds.

Bald Eagle in Nest 0032c

A Bald Eagle faces into the wind and the lowering sun while sitting
in a huge nest on the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park.

Bald Eagle in Nest 0033

Bald Eagle in Nest 0056

Bald Eagles build their nests in trees near water, where they can watch for prey.
They add sticks to a nest each year, either picking them up off the ground or breaking
branches off a tree and carrying them in their talons. They interweave the sticks and fill
the spaces with moss, grass and other material. They line the bottom with their feathers
to cushion the eggs, and add greenery as a signal to other Eagles that the nest is in use.

Bald Eagle in Nest 0043

The shape of an Eagle nest, or aerie, is based upon the tree in which it is built. Nests built in
tree forks like this one are generally cylindrical or conical (this nest is an inverted cone shape).
This nest has been used for many years (a nest in Ohio was used for 34 years until the tree fell).

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Bald Eagle in Nest 0053 M

A Bald Eagle is ruffled by a late afternoon wind in its nest on the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park.

Bald Eagles prefer building their nests in trees where they can have an unobstructed view in all directions.
They usually start building the nest up to three months before the female lays her first egg, and reuse old
nests for many years, adding new sticks each year and repairing any damage from the previous year.

Bald Eagle in Nest 0059

Bald Eagle in Nest 0066

This Eagle ended up drawing quite a crowd (as do most sights at Yellowstone), so after getting a few
more portraits I headed to West Yellowstone to get some gas (you do quite a lot of driving in the park).
I stopped back at the nest on the way back to take another portrait in the golden light of the setting sun.

Bald Eagle in Nest 0084 M

A Bald Eagle faces the setting sun on its enormous nest near the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park.

I have included four close portraits of Bald Eagles taken in Alaska and New Mexico below to add context.

Bald Eagle X6641 M

A 1000 x 1590 close portrait of a Bald Eagle, taken at 850mm
in February at Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico.

All of the landscape (horizontal) large version images linked from the thumbnails are 1500 pixels wide.
Portrait (vertical) images are 1200 pixels tall (1290 pixels with title bar). Images designated with an “M”
in the shot number are 5:4 aspect ratio, 1500 x 1290 with a title bar, or 1500 x 1200 without a title bar.
A few portrait images like the one above are designated ”M”, and are 1500 pixels tall (plus title bar).

Bald Eagle X3758 M

A Bald Eagle perched at the top of a conifer near Silver Salmon Creek, Alaska.

Bald Eagles are Sea Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus, meaning salt, eagle, white, head).
The word Bald derives from piebald, originally from the Old English bala (white patch or blaze)
and the Middle English ball with the suffix ed used to form an adjective from a noun. Thus the word
Bald in this context means white-headed. The National Bird of the USA, it appears on the Great Seal.

Benjamin Franklin wrote to his daughter a year after the Great Seal was adopted in 1782, expressing
his disappointment that the Eagle had been chosen as the National Symbol, stating that Bald Eagles
did not make their living honestly. He considered them too lazy to fish for themselves, often stealing
fish from other birds. He also considered the Eagle a coward, as it could be chased off by the tiny
King Bird (a play on words: Americans had just chased the “King birds” (British) from the country
in the Revolutionary War). He considered the Wild Turkey a better choice for National Symbol.

Bald Eagle X3895 M

A close portrait of a Bald Eagle taken at eye level on a stump at the edge of a field
of sedge grass, where Silver Salmon Creek meets the beach at Cook Inlet, Alaska.

While there are a few places where Bald Eagles are used to people and can often be
seen up close at eye level, in the wild they are more often seen perched high in trees.

The two subspecies of Bald Eagle are the only species of Eagle that live solely in North America,
and thus they are commonly referred to as the American Eagle. The two subspecies are divided by
geographical location, from 38 degrees N. latitude near San Francisco on the West Coast and a bit
further south on the East Coast at Cape Hatteras. Nearly half of the estimated 70,000 Bald Eagles
live in Alaska. This is the Washington Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus washingtoniensis),
the larger of the two subspecies. They winter further south, in Canada and the Northern US. The
nominate subspecies is smaller (Haliaeetus leucocephalus leucocephalus) and lives in the
Southern US, Baja California and Northern Mexico. They are normally permanent residents.

Bald Eagle Takeoff Position X3897 M

A frontal portrait of the famous Bald Eagle takeoff position used by the US Postal Service.

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Eagles Red-Tailed Hawks Osprey

Harlan’s Red-Tail Light Morph Juvenile 0705 M

Harlan’s Red-Tail Light Morph Juvenile 0708 M

A Light morph juvenile Harlan’s Red-Tailed Hawk taken in Grand Tetons National Park,
just to the south of the southern entrance to Yellowstone National Park in early October.

The Harlan’s Hawk is a very dark form which breeds in Alaska and Northern Canada. There are
Dark and Light morphs, both of which have light tails without the typical reddish cast. The markings
are dark brown to black, without reddish tones, and most individuals are Dark morph (under 1% Light).
Harlan’s Red-Tail was once considered to be a separate species until intergrade variations were found.

Harlan’s Red-Tail Light Morph Juvenile 0707c

Harlan’s Red-Tail Light Morph Juvenile 0708c

The Light morph Harlan’s Red-Tail is darker above and lighter below than a Light morph Red-Tail.
They typically have a white throat and dark brown to charcoal black markings with no reddish tone.

Harlan’s Hawks winter in the northwestern area of the US and the Great Plains. Since its discovery in
the early 1800s, the Harlan’s Hawk has been considered to be a separate species several times, and
as a subspecies of the Red-Tailed Hawk at least twice. The subject is continues to be controversial.
Their wingtips are shorter than the typical Red-Tailed Hawk. The Harlan’s Hawk interbreeds with
Red-Tailed Hawks, and intergrade variations result with varying amounts of red in the tail.
Once scholar has stated that the presumed parents were both Harlans, but one parent
had more red in the tail, thus he is using the intergrade variations to reinstate the
argument that the Harlan’s Hawk and Red-Tailed Hawks are separate species.

Red-Tailed Hawk Yellowstone 0620

An Intermediate morph Red-Tailed Hawk soaring high over the Firehole River in Yellowstone.
Red-Tailed Hawks are generally seen at significant height (these images were taken at 600mm).

Red-Tailed Hawks weigh from 2 to 4 pounds (averaging 2.25 pounds) and are generally
18” to 25” long with a wingspan of 41” to 56”. They have relatively broad 7.5” to 10” tails.
They are a heavily-built hawk with a brown-streaked belly band on a light underside in
the Light and Intermediate morphs, a cinnamon brown head which appears small in
comparison to the body size, a short, dark curved bill with light gray to yellow cere
and gap skin (skin at the base of the bill and edge of the mouth) and yellow legs.
Their talons are exceedingly sharp. Juveniles have yellow eyes which darken to
an amber color with age. The tail of the primary species is brick red on top and
red-orange on the underside. Juveniles have a light tail with dark horizontal bars.

Red-Tailed Hawk Yellowstone 0622

An Intermediate morph Red-Tailed Hawk in a soaring turn over the Firehole River in Yellowstone.

Red-Tailed Hawks are one of the largest in the genus Buteo, known as the soaring hawks.
They are the most commonly seen hawks, and are generally soaring at a significant height.
As with most raptors, the females are larger than the males, averaging about 25% heavier.

Red-Tailed Hawk Yellowstone 0626

Light and Intermediate morph Red-Tailed Hawks have a tan-orange to buff body with a light to dark reddish brown
belly band and dark underwing coverts at the leading edge of the wing (darker and broader in Intermediate morphs).

Red-Tailed Hawks primarily eat small mammals such as mice and squirrels, but
they also eat rabbits, gophers, pigeons and other birds, reptiles, fish and insects.
They hunt using two different techniques: from a perch and scanning from the air.

In perch hunting, the hawk scans for prey from an elevated perch such as a
utility pole or a tree, swooping down from the perch to capture its marked prey.
They also scan for prey while soaring overhead at great height, snatching a bird in
flight or chasing down prey spotted from the air, pinning it in their sharp talons.
Red-Tailed Hawks have been observed hunting in pairs, soaring together or
staking out two sides of a tree, one flushing a squirrel towards the other.

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Red-Tailed Hawk Yellowstone 0627

An Intermediate morph Red-Tailed Hawk soaring over the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park.

Note the red-orange underside of the broad, fan-shaped tail. Some subspecies of the
Red-Tailed Hawk do not have this red tail (the pale Krider’s Red-Tail has a white tail
with a light red to pink area at the end of the tail, and both light and dark Harlan’s
have a uniform, light tail). Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawks have a light banded tail.

Red-Tailed Hawk Yellowstone 0633

Red-Tailed Hawk Yellowstone 0636

This individual has sustained damage to its tail, as can be seen in these frontal shots and the image below.

Red-Tailed Hawk Yellowstone 0642

An Intermediate morph Red-Tailed Hawk soaring over the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park.

The Red-Tailed Hawk has spread to an extremely diverse range of habitats in an unusual adaptation to the
pattern of human development of the country. The clearing of forests in the Northwest created hunting areas
which the hawks took advantage of, and the preservation of wood lots and the planting of new trees created
nesting sites near these new hunting areas. Highways with open median areas, road signs and utility poles
created perches and open areas for perch hunting, and the fact that the hawks are not bothered by human
activity allows them to nest and live in areas where there are large numbers of humans, such as in cities
where pigeons and rats can be found to supplement their diet. The most famous Red-Tailed Hawk in
history was a good example: Pale Male became the first Red-Tailed Hawk to successfully nest and
raise his young in New York City’s Manhattan Borough. Click the link for the story of Pale Male.

Red-Tailed Hawk Yellowstone 0645

An Intermediate morph Red-Tailed Hawk soaring over the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park.

Red-Tailed Hawk X9080 M

A rear quarter portrait of a Red-Tailed Hawk scanning for prey at Bosque del Apache, NM.
Red-Tailed Hawks have superb eyesight, and can discern prey as small as a mouse at 100 feet.

There are several subspecies of the Red-Tailed Hawk with highly variable appearance, but even
within the primary species there are three major variations in plumage and overlapping variations.
These plumage variations are called the Light, Intermediate and Dark morphs, and there are also
Light and Dark Intermediates. Light morph Harlan’s Red-Tailed Hawks can be quite pale. There
are also Rufous phase Red-Tailed Hawks with reddish-brown plumage in light and dark morphs.

Red-Tailed Hawk Morphs M
(1800 x 1200, 497 KB)

A larger-than-normal (1800 x 1200) preview of the SXXL (6900 x 4600) composite which
shows images of various Red-Tailed Hawk morphs with legends identifying the variations.

Red-Tailed Hawks have three variations (or morphs), the Light, Intermediate and Dark morphs.
The differences in the morphs are based upon the belly, shoulder and central wing markings and
the body color. Light and Intermediate morphs have buff to orange dark-streaked bodies and
a dark patch at the shoulder. The body streaks on the Light morph can be very light, and the
shoulder markings can be narrower. The Dark morph has a dark body and central wing.

Raptor Portraits SXXL
A 1547 x 1200 version of the SXXL Composite (6511 x 5050).

Eagles and Hawks

Steller's Sea Eagle; Cooper's Hawk; Bald Eagle; Golden Eagle;
Dark Rufous Morph Red-Tail Juvenile; Intermediate Morph Red-Tail;
Light Morph Red-Tail Juvenile; Light Morph Ferruginous Hawk.

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Osprey with Prey 9052

An Osprey perched in a tree with a Trout, over the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park.

Ospreys are white with brown streaks and bars below and are all brown above,
with a brown eye mask reaching to the neck. They are lighter than most raptors.

Osprey with Prey 8720 M

Osprey take their fish into trees to eat them. This one, taken from across the
Firehole River at Yellowstone National Park, was worried about the long beak
on the end of my camera and took off with its fish, providing us an opportunity
to see how the Osprey orients the fish forwards to reduce aerodynamic drag.

Osprey with Prey 8721

An Osprey carries a trout over the Firehole River with the fish facing forward.

While in-flight, Ospreys orient the fish to face forward to reduce drag, as is
shown in the images above and below (taken at Yellowstone National Park).
To do this, the Osprey carries the fish with one foot forward and one behind.

Osprey with Prey 8722

The Osprey is unusual in that it has a single species living worldwide (even the four subspecies are similar).
Its toes are of equal length, and like the Owl it can reverse the outer toes to grasp its slippery prey with two of its
toes in front and two toes behind for a more secure grip. They have barbed pads on their feet to help them grip.

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Osprey with Prey 8727

An Osprey carries a trout over the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park.

Ospreys fly with slow, steady wingbeats on slightly bent wings or soar in
circles over shallow water looking for prey. Unlike Bald Eagles, which pluck
their prey from just below the surface, Osprey can dive deeper to capture prey,
and can close their specially-adapted nostrils to keep water out during a dive.

Osprey with Prey 8728

An Osprey carries a trout over the Firehole River in central Yellowstone.

Ospreys are in a family and genus by themselves (Pandionidae), but they have
often been placed in the same order as Falcons by some taxonomists, and in the
same order as Eagles and Hawks by others. Some taxonomists who place the
Osprey in the order Accipitriforms with Eagles and Hawks also place it in the
family Accipitridae with Eagles, Hawks, Kites, Harriers and Vultures. The
controversy is ongoing and has contributed to the variation in common
names for this raptor (such as fish eagle, fish hawk, sea hawk, etc.).

Osprey with Prey Flight Study VLG

A 2000 x 775 version of the VLG Composite image (3500 x 1325) showing a
Northern Osprey carrying a trout over the Firehole River at Yellowstone National Park.

Osprey 0403

A Northern Osprey hunting in the skies over Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge (Southern CA).
Ospreys are superb anglers, capturing a fish on at least 25% of their dives (as high as 70%).

Osprey 1585 M

An Osprey poses on a limb in the Mangrove Swamp on Sanibel Island, Florida.

Some of the best Osprey shots I have ever acquired were taken of this bird above a
small river just inland from the mouth, where it met the Gulf of Mexico. The background is
busy, but this is one of those rare opportunities where the bird is not too far above eye level.

In images of this particular bird, you can see the unusual outer toe of the Osprey,
which it can reverse to allow it to grasp its prey with two toes in front and two in the rear.

Osprey Display 1662 M

A Northern Osprey displaying on a limb in front of the Mangrove swamp on Sanibel Island, Florida.

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For more Raptors, click the Display Composite above to visit the Raptors Wildlife Study section.

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