On Throw Back Thursday:
If there’s a bulky hawk in your backyard that ignores you like this, I bet I can identify it without ever seeing it. In western Pennsylvania, I’m 90% sure it’s a juvenile red-tailed hawk.
Young red-tailed hawks are so focused that they tune us out. Read about this backyard bird in the 2009 article:
A couple of years ago my daughter and I saw a hawk fly down to the ground on the edge of our woods as we were leaving the house. As we drove slowly down the hill he just stayed on the ground staring into the woods. When the car was level with him I opened the window and said hello, and he flew off startled. It looked like a Cooper’s Hawk (slate gray, bars on the tail), and it seemed to be an adult. I have no idea what he was staring at so intently. It’s unusual to sneak up on a wild animal like that, though.
Mary Ann, I’ve found that cars make a good bird blind. They think it’s just a moving box, no people nearby
I heard and saw my 2 today.