What Hawk Is This? Or Is It a Hawk?

How are your raptor identification skills? These photos were taken in Calgary, AB in late August and those are all the clues you get. Can you identify this beautiful bird? Leave your best guess and reasons for it in the comments. Bonus points if you can identify what this bird is eating, because I can’t. Thank you Krista Beavis for sharing these stunning photos!

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7 Comments

  1. Great pictures. I think it’s a Swainson’s Hawk – an intermediate juvenile in its first year. Notice the dark breast.

  2. I guess it is either an HawK Owl or a Golden Eagle. If an eagle then it is eating a gull.

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  4. Swainson’s Hawk
    I picked it because of the color scheme on the head.
    Complete guess on what it is eating. A dove?

  5. Looks like a juvenile Harris hawk, probably male. No clue what it’s eating.

  6. Maybe a juvenile Swainson’s Hawk intermediate morph. The rusty chest with darker spotting and streaking look a lot like some photos I took of some SWHA juvies around here a few years ago.

  7. Awesome pics! Looks like a Swainson’s Hawk to me & he appears to be eating a bird (what kind I don’t know). Looks pretty proud of himself, as most raptors do!

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