Red-tailed Hawk coaxing the remaining weary chick out on a limb with a gopher.
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Although hard to see there is a chick in the nest as this parent is trying to get the last of the brood to fledge offering a gopher to do so. In the up-coming post she steps aside and makes a very unusual sound while looking at the chick. It looks up (not visible to me/us) and then assumes his position lying comfortably in the nest. I offer this to show a natural behavioral coaxing to young to leave the nest and learn to fly;. Some are more cautious than others. And, a very high percentage don't need any coaxing at all they simply fall from the nest while testing their wings by grabbing air in the nest feeling their aerodynamics. They just sail to another tree or to the ground half hopping and flying to get to a safe position.
My next post is more obvious what she is doing. She places the gopher on the limb and steps aside for the chick to come out a limb so to say.
Red-tailed Hawk coaxing the remaining weary chick out on a limb with a gopher.
***Best viewed by pressing "L" on your keyboard***
Although hard to see there is a chick in the nest as this parent is trying to get the last of the brood to fledge offering a gopher to do so. In the up-coming post she steps aside and makes a very unusual sound while looking at the chick. It looks up (not visible to me/us) and then assumes his position lying comfortably in the nest. I offer this to show a natural behavioral coaxing to young to leave the nest and learn to fly;. Some are more cautious than others. And, a very high percentage don't need any coaxing at all they simply fall from the nest while testing their wings by grabbing air in the nest feeling their aerodynamics. They just sail to another tree or to the ground half hopping and flying to get to a safe position.
My next post is more obvious what she is doing. She places the gopher on the limb and steps aside for the chick to come out a limb so to say.