California raptors

In Irvine's San Joaquin wetlands, the first thing I saw was this immature Cooper's Hawk:





The same hawk on a different day:




Hawk vs Hummingbird:


This is a California Condor. They went nearly extinct, but now a small population has been released back into the wild. The easiest place to see them is in Big Sur. Their wingspan is 9 feet - like a small airplane.


A red-shouldered hawk. The population in California looks very different from the ones we see on the east coast.


A male northern harrier. For some reason, they are much harder to find than the females.


This is a female northern harrier. The have disc-shaped heads because like owls, they hunt mostly by hearing. The round shape of the face helps channel sounds to its ears.


This is the most common hawk in US - a red-tailed hawk. (Check out those tail feathers.) Most of the hawks you see casually are red-tails.


A red-tail hawk pair. With raptors, the female is the larger one.


Not quite a raptor, but a cool bird nonetheless - the American Crow.