These little white-headed birds are baby hawks in their nest which is on a ledge of a small cliff. They are called nestlings because they are not old enough to leave the nest. I posted an article titled ‘Cute baby birds‘ two weeks ago and thought it would fun to show these cute baby hawks.

The middle photo is one of the parent birds of the pair of nestlings and it was watching over it’s young from a short distance. Though I stayed in my car and was more than 80 feet away when I photographed the pair of nestlings, the parent called several times as though to say, “Those are my kids, you just move on and leave them alone.” I took 3 quick photos, including these, and left so as not to disturb the parent further.

The baby hawk in the bottom photo is in a nest in a tree, another common location where these hawks build their nest. All of these are Red-tailed Hawks which is the most common large hawk in North America and they are found in every state of the continental U.S. plus most of Canada.

This species feeds mostly on rodents so provides an important service to us. They an be seen soaring, often flying in circles, as it searches for prey. These are not backyard birds, at least not unless you have large fields in your yard. They are found in parts of cities where there are fields that provide prey as well as rural areas.

Have you seen a Red-tailed Hawk nest?

Have you seen a Red-tailed hawk nestling?

Tagged as: Birding in the Field