One of the real benefits of working with (and living with) birds is that it's possible to start understanding birds as individuals, with distinguishing characteristics and personalities (avianalities?) I love taking portraits of birds, hoping that their individuality comes through, and also trying to get the essence of the species.
Sometimes a bird really cooperates in making a point. One of the things that is often mentioned in descriptions of the differences between sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks is that sharpies have a bit more of a round-headed appearance, whereas coops have a more blocky, squared-off head. So tell me - which species would you guess this bird is?
Another thing coops are known for doing (especially in-hand) is raising their hackles - the feathers on the back of their neck. It's a way for them to look larger and more menacing.
(For a world-class full-body coop hackle display, check out these pix by Walter Kitundu.)
Coops aren't the only birds that do it, of course. My namesake redshoulders do it to great affect, as do their buteo cousins, redtails. This bird was responding to the appearance of my two blindmates and, in the process, lets you see how long its neck really is. Don't let that hunched down hawk on the power pole fool you - these guys can really stretch when they want to. (A gust of wind just when I took the photo parted the feathers and gives us the "cutaway view" of the neck feathering.)
I finally got a new point and shoot a week ago, and it was nice to have a few hawks show up last Sunday to let me try it out. It's a 12 megapixel camera, which means it's possible to get an awful lot of detail in a photo. Just for the heck of it, let's take a look at some of the redtail's assorted raptorial tools.
One thing that's kinda fun about the hackle photo above is that the redtail's mouth is almost closed. Often times, they have a bit of a slackjawed look that's not particularly flattering.
The cool thing about that, though, is that it lets you see inside their mouth, which is a pretty interesting, pretty complex structure. I've cropped the photo above and lightened the exposure a bit so you can see what's in there. Notice the backward projections on the tongue and the complex structure on the roof of the mouth.
... and a slightly different view of the mouth that lets you see a bit more of the tongue. If I have time, I'm going to research and spell this out a bit better, but that hole in the tongue connects to the trachea, and the esophagus is the much bigger hole at the back of the mouth. I think the trachea connects up to the structure at on the roof of the mouth when the mouth is closed, and that's how air is channelled in from the nostrils in flight (but I may be fuzzy on that, so put this in the category of something you read on the internet).
Then there are the feet - the business end of the hawk. This gives you a sense of the size of a redtail's feet - that's my blindmate's hand for scale. Depending on your screen, it might be pretty close to life size - I think the hallux claw measured about 33mm, or roughly an inch. If you're a rat or a gopher or brush rabbit, a puncture wound that's 1" deep is pretty lethal.
Look a little closer at that front foot - it's missing a talon. Fortunately, it's not the hallux - the longest talon, on the rear toe. If it was missing that one, it would have a much harder time carrying prey. The missing talon has been gone long enough to heal over, but not long enough that it has re-grown much. The bird was healthy and hefty, so it didn't seem to be suffering much from the loss.
Here's the rear foot - you can see the rough surface on the underside. The tough skin and rugged texture help the bird with perching and gripping prey. Look at all that cool scaling, too. If definitely makes it easier to see them as modern dinosaurs.
Hawks are totes cool anyway, but seeing all these little details is a real treat. One more, just to show that they do occasionally close their mouths:
(should you be wondering, the diary title is adapted from notes to myself while putting this thing together.)