I do know what species this bird is, but I leave readers the fun of identifying it and telling others the traits that helped with the diagnosis.
The picture was taken by an undergrad at the University of Pittsburgh, Vanessa Coleman, and forwarded by her roommate, Lauren Valyo to her academic advisor, via whom it eventually reached me. Here’s Vanessa’s story of the urban raptor:
I was cleaning up our apartment and decided to run the vacuum. As I was doing so, I happened to turn around and look at the window and I noticed this large bird sitting on the windowsill. I was so awe-struck that I immediately ran to my bedroom to grab my phone in order to take a picture of it. After I had gotten my phone, I slowly approached the side of the window in order to avoid scaring the bird. I snapped one quick picture but decided to try to get a better one from a closer spot. I walked right up to the window and the hawk just stared at me and allowed me to take the picture, however; there were snowflake clings on the window, so I wanted to clean them off to get a clearer picture. The bird watched me wipe off the window clings and only jerked its head back a bit, but still stayed put. It allowed me to take several more pictures, all looking directly into the lens of the camera. The hawk looking into the camera surprised me because many animals are disengaged or wary of allowing people to take pictures of them. I just stared at the hawk for about 15 minutes before I told my other roommate (not Lauren) about the bird. She came out and took a picture of it but was very abrupt in her movements and I believe she scared the bird and it flew away after approximately 20 minutes on our windowsill. I think the bird would have stayed much longer if my other roommate had not scared it away.
It was a very cool experience, especially living in the city. It’s the last thing I ever expected to happen in Pittsburgh!
h/t: via Hempenstein and Laurel
I hear it’s been darn cold there, maybe he just wants in.
Beautiful.
Looks to me like the Eastern variety of the Red-tailed Hawk.
Seconded.
Thirded.
Fourded.
Fiveded.
I’d “sex”-ded the ID (RTH), but I can’t tell the gender.
Ah, the well-known film cliché …
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Agree. Looks like ‘Big Red’ from Cornell.
Latin names are the rule – this is WEIT after all! So is Buteo jamaicensis correct?
Yup.
Tho, at least in the states, birds are one taxon for which common names were standardized, here by the American Ornithologists Union. So they’re far more reliable than most common names.
Looks like a red tailed hawk to me. They have adapted really well to urban environments. The brown speckles on the front are a good indicator. I’ve also seen them poof up their feathers like this one seems to be doing, presumably to help keep warm in the cold weather.
Yes, Red-tailed Hawk. The dark band across the breast gives it away.
That heavy looks annoyed. I reckon Vanessa & Lauren haven’t paid the rent…
+1!
Ah the story sounds familiar. Once I spent almost 2 hours stalking an animal to photograph it and just as I was about to get my photo someone ran up shouting “have you got that photo yet?” It’s no wonder hunters and wildlife photographers tend to be solitary creatures. That’s a great photo of the bird though. I imagine the bird’s sitting outside the window to catch some of the radiated heat.
Sadly for the bird, glass is rather opaque to infrared radiation. One of those darn ‘greenhouse effects’.
Pittsburgh has a long association with pictures of raptors on its high buildings – the Gulf Tower Peregrin Falcon Cam started in the late 90s: http://old.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20020504falcon4.asp
I sorta suspected that this was a juvenile, but on looking at the RTH page on Wikipedia I learned that up to 3yrs their irises are yellow, turning to red-brown over 3-4yrs, so for the experts out there, are we looking at a mature specimen?
Otherwise, the closest to one I’ve ever gotten is at the other end of one of the light poles that they frequent on the interstate heading into Pittsburgh. And out here my suburban wilderness (with a 22 acre hollow behind the house) I’m pretty sure I’ve had hawks having lunch on the roof (or maybe owls, when it’s dark). I think I have a RTH nest near the top of the big hemlock beside the house, too, but I’ve never had anything bigger than a sparrow on my windowsill.
This is a juvenile Redtail, hatched just last summer.
[You’ve misinterpreted the Wiki info]
Here are some photos of a red-tailed hawk that I took a few years ago. I was able to walk to within 3 feet of it and it never flew away. https://plus.google.com/photos/116682824355827501844/albums/5148431947114484753
Was it injured in some way?
Cities concentrate hawk food nicely.
Pigeons, gulls…
Don’t forget rats. Red-tails love them mammals.
Right! I was trying to remember what I was forgetting. Tho nocturnal mammals are probably less vulnerable? I’ve seen some pretty brazen rats, though.
“The world is a veritable smorgasbord…”
😀
In the park where I live, I once saw a red-tailed hawk raid a bird’s nest and fly away with one of the chicks. Incredible to see that in the wild.
But, now… we have a Bald Eagle’s nest about a mile up the road. Look for bald eagle/NorthFortMyers if you want to see them.
Get some photos then when they start nesting!
There’s a web cam at the nest.
Reblogged this on Mark Solock Blog.
We have local redtails that fly over regularly and give that screeching cry that all the movies dub onto scenes with eagles in them. It’s a wonderful call of the wild.
We also have plenty of Cooper’s hawks and ospreys. And sometimes bald eagles as well.
Over the last few years, pairs of migrating Sandhill Cranes have started to stop off and stay (never seen any nests yet) in our local area all summer. Seeing a pair of cranes flying up your residential street, about 10-feet off the pavement, calling their crazy call, is really amazing.
Our bird list, seen from our house ONLY, is three columns on letter-sized paper, single-spaced. I’ve never seen a place with more variety of birds. Many just pass through.
“…seen from our house…”
In which parts, if I may ask, do you live?
Beautiful picture Vanessa!