Red-tailed Hawk with Gopher Snake and Western Kingbird

Red-tailed hawk, snake and Kingbird

(see others on photo.net Steve Shinn)

A realistic estimation of this adult female's (assumed because it was the larger of the pair) wingspan would be at least 4.5 ft. That makes the snake close to 5 ft in length (including the freshly removed head...) with a weight of at least four pounds of solid, water-laden muscle. Given that the max weight of an adult female RTH is only a bit over four pounds, it's not hard to see why she tired quickly while trying to get this meal to the chicks. It took her 3 tries because of the Kingbirds.

I'm not sure why but the appearance of this image is way off from what it should be. Please see this and others at photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=976302

Thanks

Done