Harris Hawk

[James Newman]

My wife and I made our first visit to the wonderful Arizona - Senora Desert Museum this morning. It is a fantastic zoo/museum south of Tucson featuring all of the animals, birds, reptiles, etc that live in this part of the desert southwest. They have a free flying raptor show that was especially interesting. This Haris Hawk was being shown by a handler at the exit to the park as we were leaving. I particularly liked this "portrait" of the majestic bird.

James Newman

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, James,

My wife and I made our first visit to the wonderful Arizona - Senora Desert Museum this morning. It is a fantastic zoo/museum south of Tucson featuring all of the animals, birds, reptiles, etc that live in this part of the desert southwest. They have a free flying raptor show that was especially interesting. This Haris Hawk was being shown by a handler at the exit to the park as we were leaving. I particularly liked this "portrait" of the majestic bird.

Wonderful shot.

 

[Asher Kelman]

My wife and I made our first visit to the wonderful Arizona - Senora Desert Museum this morning. It is a fantastic zoo/museum south of Tucson featuring all of the animals, birds, reptiles, etc that live in this part of the desert southwest. They have a free flying raptor show that was especially interesting. This Haris Hawk was being shown by a handler at the exit to the park as we were leaving. I particularly liked this "portrait" of the majestic bird.

James Newman

So noble and decisive. This guy is one tough hombre. No prisoners live!

Asher

 

[Eric Diller]

Awesome portrait shot! Love the details n the eys and feathers!

 

[Andrew Stannard]

Great shot James, the feather detail is fantastic.

I remember seeing some Harris Hawks at a falconry display - they seemed to have such focus when they were staring at something. Almost unnerving if their gaze became fixed on you.

 

[Sandra Jones]

fantastic detail. I doubt one could do better than that. Love it.

 

[Don Cohen]

Just returned from a trip - still catching up, but had to comment. This is a beautiful portrait, with no discernible flaws. In fact, it's shots like this that got me hooked on bird photography!

 

[James Newman]

Thank you all for the very kind comments. I was lucky to have stumbled upon this fine specimen on the way out to the car. Unfortunately for me, my 70-200mm lens is the longest I have so I don't get too many really good opportunities to photograph birds. I wish I had a 500mm but I think I will have to win the lottery first. Spotting him and his handler at the exit to the park was a stroke of luck that enabled me to get some shots up close. I took a variety of different shots because I knew I would most likely need to in order to get something usable. This pose, with the angle of his head, sharpness of the eye, shadowing, etc., was my favorite. He was truly a majestic creature so it would be pretty hard to have yaken a bad photo of something so special. Thanks again for looking and commenting.
James Newman

PS - Don, I am looking forward to seeing some of the work from your trip.

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Nice work James, nice detail and good isolation from the background - which is in sympathetic colours.

It reminds me of a an evening a couple of years ago when I was taking the dog for a walk and met a chap out hunting with his Harris Hawk. You don't come across it much now, outside of the Birds of prey centres, but there are still a few people who work the birds.

Mike

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

This Haris Hawk was being shown by a handler at the exit to the park as we were leaving. I particularly liked this "portrait" of the majestic bird.

Hi James,

Fascinating creatures aren't they? The piercing stare, the majestic talons and beak, the beautiful colors. These close encounters allow to study the fine details, which would be very hard to do in nature. It also makes one appreciate those who do manage to capture images in the wild even more, and it often requires more than just a long focal length to get stunning images out in the open country.

Here are some images I shot at a falconry in the Netherlands. The first one there has a similar pose as yours.

Thanks for sharing, and I'm glad you're apparently enjoying your new home location.

Cheers,
Bart