So living in a high-desert mountain valley, I see a ton of raptors on the telephone poles and fence posts as I drive to and from town. Most of the time they’re easily identified (or guessed) as Red-Tailed Hawks, since Red-Tails are essentially the most common. Such as this one:
But many, many other species liven up the skies: Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, Northern Goshawks (my favorite: one flew through my yard the other day), American Kestrels, Rough-Legged Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks, Prairie Falcons, and many more. Yesterday I snapped the photo below, and it’s either a Peregrine Falcon or a Swainson’s Hawk. The breast bib looks like a Swainson’s, but its size was more like a Peregrine Falcon, and the face looked close to a Peregrine.
