This raptor is the one I see the most. They’ve been pretty good to me this year too, giving me good looks. I find it wild how their stomach acid is as strong as battery acid.
I was driving in my neighborhood recently when I saw one taking off. I see them wheeling around in the air all of the time, but something about seeing one closer to the ground and not just soaring was different. I had never really realized just how elegant they are as flyers. When soaring, they’re often making minute changes to basically hover, but when the one was taking off, he was really flapping and it was somehow really elegant. I dunno how to describe it. But I have a renewed appreciation for them now.
It’s quite common to look up and see them gliding around barely flapping. I’ve heard they love to catch hot pockets of air to give them more lift. An underappreciated raptor for sure. Nature’s cleanup crew.
They also have an incredible sense of smell. Which I always found weird - I think just because you can see right through their nose.
One of the few birds that relies on smell to find food! Awesome pics.
Yup, they’re too cool. It’s a shame they’re often portrayed in a negative light in media.
This used to be the one I see the most, now it’s swapped to black vultures, they form a lot larger groups, really annoying on my tin roof but I have a giant tree with literally hundreds of vultures which can be kind of cool
I can see how that’s both cool and annoying. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a few decent sized groups of ten or so, but never a giant flock.
On Halloween 2 years ago
Wow that’s awesome. Perfect for the Halloween aesthetic too.
Wow. That one must have been close.
Yeah, probably like 15’ or so. There were some trash bags on the side of the road and two of them where doing flybys.
Nature’s garbage collectors. Love these dudes.
An underrated bird for sure
Mmm that’s some good primary feather action right there. Majestic stuff!
An underappreciated bird for sure. Much more beautiful than most media portrays them as.
These guys are so cool, I love seeing them!
Amusingly, modern battery “acid” is a base.
Don’t people mean this kind of battery when they say battery acid?
