The Raptors Study contains more than 600 images of Eagles, Hawks, Falcons,
Harriers, Owls, White-Tailed Kites and Osprey from Wildlife Refuges and other
locations across the United States, separated into six sections and 14 pages.

Years in the making, requiring well over 750 hours of compilation and selection,
processing, post-processing, image preparation and creation of web pages,
this study contains portraits, flight shots and flight studies, hunting scenes
and behavioral images of these exciting and fascinating birds of prey.

Raptors, or birds of prey, are among the most interesting of birds,
and are among the most exciting to encounter and difficult to shoot.
Generally seen at great distance, getting close can be a challenge,
and the images are nearly always taken with a long telephoto lens.

This page contains a text-based index (present on each page) and
display composites which lead to each page in the Raptors Study.

Raptor Section Index

Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Raptors Collection where a Gallery can be selected.

Direct Links:

Eagles     Red-Tailed Hawks     Assorted Hawks
Owl and Harrier        Falcons & Kites        Osprey

The Eagles section contains over 150 images of Bald Eagles from Alaska, Bosque del Apache Refuge in
New Mexico, Brackendale Eagles Refuge in British Columbia, Canada, and Yellowstone National Park in
Wyoming. It is separated into sections based on location, plus a compilation of portraits from each page.

The Eagles Index contains sample images from each page and display composites linked to the pages,
along with images of a Golden Eagle, African Fish Eagles and two large M-sized Bald Eagle portraits.

The Alaskan Eagles page contains 48 portraits and flight shots of juvenile and adult Bald Eagles
from Silver Salmon Creek on the Alaska Peninsula, near Cook Inlet in Lake Clark National Park.

The Bosque del Apache Eagles page contains 48 portraits, flight shots and flight studies of
juvenile and adult Bald Eagles wintering at Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico.

The Brackendale and Yellowstone page contains 48 images including Bald Eagles hunting Salmon on
the Squamish River at Brackendale Eagles Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada and portraits of
Bald Eagles on an enormous 2000 lb. nest on the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

The Bald Eagle Portraits page is a compilation portfolio containing 40 images from other pages
within the Eagles section, including some images which are not present on the other pages and
several portraits of an African Fish Eagle and a Steller’s Sea Eagle, the world’s heaviest raptor.

The Hawks section contains over 170 images of Red-Tailed Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks, Light morph
Ferruginous Hawks and Harris Hawks from locations across the Western United States, separated
into three pages: Red-Tailed Hawks in Flight; Red-Tailed Hawk Portraits and Assorted Hawks.

The Hawks Index has sample images from each page and display composites linked to the pages.

The Red-Tailed Hawk Flight page contains 55 images and flight study composites of Light, Intermediate
and Dark morph juvenile and adult Red-Tailed Hawks from several locations in the Western United States.

The Red-Tailed Hawk Portraits page has 54 images of Light, Intermediate and Dark morph
juvenile and adult Red-Tailed Hawks taken in several locations in the Western United States.

The Assorted Hawks page contains 62 images of Cooper’s Hawks, Harris Hawks and
Light morph Ferruginous Hawks from Southern California and Bosque del Apache, NM.

The Northern Harrier and Owls page contains 52 images of Harriers hunting over Bolsa Chica
Wildlife Refuge in Southern California and at Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico
(including a spectacular hunting scene at Bosque del Apache), plus male and female Snowy Owls,
a pair of Barn Owls, and a Great Horned Owl, all taken near Mount Ranier in Washington State.

The Falcons page contains 55 images detailing American Kestrels (the smallest of the falcons),
Peale’s Peregrine Falcon (a subspecies of the Peregrine, the fastest animal on Earth in a dive),
and the Prairie and Taiga Merlins, a robust and heavily-built but small species of Falcon. These
shots were taken in several locations in California, New Mexico and on Sanibel Island, Florida.

The White-Tailed Kites page contains 48 portraits, flight shots and behavioral images of this
elegant raptor taken at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge and Ballona Creek in Southern California.

The Osprey page contains 50 portraits, flight shots and flight studies of the
Fish Hawk (also placed in the same family as Falcons and Eagles). The shots
were taken at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge in California and Ding Darling Wildlife
Refuge on Sanibel Island Florida, plus a few at Yellowstone National Park.

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.

Red-Tailed Hawk Morphs M

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.

The display image above links to the White-Tailed Kites page

Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Raptors Collection where a Gallery can be selected.

Direct Links:

Eagles     Red-Tailed Hawks     Assorted Hawks
Owl and Harrier        Falcons & Kites        Osprey