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Hi all,

This morning my Wife Pamela went for a walk up the arroyo and saw a big goshawk perched in the top of one of our big oaks, so we got the camera but she only got off one pic before it took off. We have loads of different raptors here, yesterday we had a pair of sharp shinned hawks hunting topos in our garden (much appreciated!). In the spring we always have a pair of golden eagles and we have a pair of red tailed hawks pretty much all year round! The number of ranchers here are pretty low which means not so many birds get shot, it seems unfortunately the rancher mentality here is about the same as it was back in Canada.

Beautiful animal, and what a nice shot of it.

Thank you for that.

Great shot!!

Wow, that's a brilliant photo. She even caught the expression in his eye!!

Great photo Mike - Cristina is really looking forward to coming up and seeing your place this week...

That's a dark morhp RED TAIL hawk not a Goshawk sorry to say. A nice shot of it though, where was it takin. And sharp shinn's eat birds, Does might have been Coopershawk chasing the topo's. They eat mainly birds but take hair as well.

Beautiful photo!

Originally Posted by Jeff Roman

That's a dark morhp RED TAIL hawk not a Goshawk sorry to say. A nice shot of it though, where was it takin. And sharp shinn's eat birds, Does might have been Coopershawk chasing the topo's. They eat mainly birds but take hair as well.

Are you sure? What marks the difference between the Goshawk and a Dark Morph Red Tail in this photo?

Fabulous photo!!

Absoulutely Bob. This is not a Goshawk, differences there are plenty of them, but instead of me pointing them out I'll just post a picture of both birds and you decide if it is or not. Goshawk are Accipiters and Red Tails are Buteos. I have flown both in Falconry and hunted with them all around Baja. I know well what they look like my friend. We have Harris Hawks aswell the third of the large hawk residents in are region. Goshawks are found in a very small group in the Martir montain range. And are extremly hard to spot even for a avide bird watcher and falconer like my self. The las one I saw was around Tijuana flying South a couple of years back while looking for a lost Goshawk that belong to a friend and fellow falconer in the area. That is completely out of place for a Goshawk but nonethelest we saw him flying over head just about 10 meters or so above are heads that morning. Anyways hear are a couple of pictures of a dark morh RT and a actual North American Goshawk.

Hope this clears it up.

Adult Goshawk




Adult dark Red Tail



And below is John. A male harris hawk that was flown by a fellow falconer in Baja. The third resident hawk you'll find it all over the peninsula..

Wow, those are beautiful hawks !! Thanks for the explanation.

No problem buddy.

Thanks for the explanation and the photos. Based on those we have seen both the red tail and Harris hawks out here where we live. A Red Tail just took up residence recently no far from our place...

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

Thanks for the explanation and the photos. Based on those we have seen both the red tail and Harris hawks out here where we live. A Red Tail just took up residence recently no far from our place...

The Red Tail hawk is very common here at our house in North County San Diego. Our back yard faces a canyon preserve, and we see them hovering all the time. They are great looking and majestic birds!