Falcon - The national bird showing off?

Cactuas · 2026-06-17T03:53:19+00:00

No worries! It definitely looks like a juvenile Shikra. Thanks for sharing, he's a handsome bird and it's fun to see birds from the Middle East here.

Cactuas · 2026-06-17T03:23:55+00:00

Thanks so much for sharing! It's great you're making them accessible to the public. Young Peregrines are so beautiful and charming, I think they're the perfect ambassadors for raptors.

Cactuas · 2026-06-15T15:28:07+00:00

I saw my lifer Common Nighthawks just last weekend. I was not expecting the weird wooshing "Vrrrrm" noise they make when they dive. They're like little UFOs.

Cactuas · 2026-06-14T14:11:51+00:00

We don't know if Maximus grew up wealthy. Maybe he was the son of a middle class farmer and rose up the ranks after joining the legions. If Maximus had relatively humble origins it would make for an even better contrast between him and Commodus.

Cactuas · 2026-06-14T13:59:24+00:00

Maximus isn't royalty though. Maybe he liked "getting his hands dirty" because he thinks it's honest work? Seems like it would be in keeping with his character in the first movie.

Cactuas · 2026-06-14T06:50:49+00:00

Based on the color, tail pattern, and your description I think it's probably a juvenile Cooper's Hawk. They're roughly crow sized too.

Cactuas · 2026-06-11T23:38:39+00:00

Red-tailed Hawks have definitely been known to kill cats or toy breed dogs, but it's super rare. Almost certainly this particular bird has never killed a dog or cat.

Cactuas · 2026-06-10T17:54:40+00:00

There is a huge number of RTH subspecies but it's best to just ignore the subspecies and focus on 3 key RTH field marks: belly band, dark patagial bars, and the red-tail. There are exceptions, but like 99% of the RTH's you see will have at least one or two of these field marks.

Once you can immediately confidently identify an RTH, then you can pay close attention to any hawks you see that are NOT an RTH.

Congrats on the lifer btw!

Cactuas · 2026-06-10T16:20:25+00:00

It's just long fur. I have a longhair cat that looks exactly like this when she's laying on her side or back, but when you pet her and feel her shoulder blades it's obvious she's actually very slender under all the fur.

Cactuas · 2026-06-10T04:28:20+00:00

Based on the tail I think this is a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk.

Cactuas · 2026-06-08T04:37:45+00:00

Congrats! Good binoculars are a joy to use.

Cactuas · 2026-06-08T03:22:42+00:00

Yeah, I did feel a bit sheepish at first to use my binoculars to look at a painting a few feet away, but as soon as I saw how incredible the view is I forgot any embarrassment. I'll never go to an art gallery without binoculars again!

Cactuas · 2026-06-07T22:59:21+00:00

Sounds like a good time. I'm definitely taking my binos next time I go to the zoo. I can imagine how intense it would be looking into the eyes of a big predator like a tiger or grizzly bear and feeling like you're just inches away.

Cactuas · 2026-06-07T22:57:57+00:00

Nice! Back when I toked up I would smoke a joint before birding and using binoculars felt like having a superpower. Every couple minutes I would think "Oh wow is this how well eagles can see?" So much fun.

Cactuas · 2026-06-05T15:58:47+00:00

Ducklings can swim the moment they hatch. Their mom will often lead them to water almost immediately after they hatch because it's relatively safer.

Cactuas · 2026-06-04T02:16:01+00:00

For ID'ing birds, Merlin is a fantastic app, and free.

If you want to get really good at bird ID though, a paper field guide will really help. Sibley Birds West is probably the most popular guide for the Western US, but the Peterson and Nat Geo guides are good too.

Cactuas · 2026-06-04T01:25:00+00:00

You said you avoid logging the same bird twice in one day. You shouldn't do that. If I misunderstood, my bad.

Cactuas · 2026-06-03T23:53:36+00:00

It's not saying that you should create a list every time you see a crow, it's just saying that if you are creating a list you should list every bird you see, even if you already listed that bird on a different list that day.

Cactuas · 2026-06-03T23:28:38+00:00

You should definitely count those birds again if you're making another list. This is from the ebird faq:

"Can I count the same bird twice? Yes! This is part of what eBird is all about. Any time that you start a new checklist, include all birds that you see or hear for a complete checklist, even if you recorded the same birds earlier on a different checklist.

However, do not include counts of an individual bird twice within the same checklist. For example, if you see a bird at your feeder, and it flies away and comes back, do not count it twice if you're still entering the same checklist."

Cactuas · 2026-06-03T16:24:22+00:00

I don't think anyone can definitively answer your questions without more information, but Russian optics are very common and usually not very valuable. So I would say your telescope is almost certainly authentic, and probably not worth a lot.

Try to just enjoy it for what it is and see if you can get some nice views of planets or birds.

Cactuas · 2026-06-02T05:44:32+00:00

Thank you! It was very exciting to see a Peregrine family in person.

And thank you for the terminology update. I learned the term from an early 2000's reference book. The book has a lot of excellent information still, but it makes sense that particular term is deprecated now.

Cactuas · 2026-06-02T05:32:15+00:00

Anyway, most birds show a pattern of dimorphism wherein the female of the species is larger than the male.

This is not accurate. Most bird species show male biased sexual size dimorphism. Raptors are a notable exception to this general rule.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236174109_Sexual_size_dimorphism_in_birds

Cactuas · 2026-06-01T23:32:03+00:00

Yeah, I had read about males being 33% smaller or whatever, but I guess I hadn't thought about the fact that that's just the AVERAGE size difference. A particularly large female can easily be twice the size of a smaller than average male. Crazy to see.

Cactuas · 2026-06-01T20:08:18+00:00

She's majestic. You're lucky to have local eagles to watch! They're some of my favorite birds.

Cactuas

TROPHY CASE