Red-tailed Hawks at Pillar Point near Half Moon Bay

The Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is probably the most common raptor in northern and central America (it's also endemic here, being found nowhere else in the world). I certainly see them all the time at home, living as I do in the former prairies of the Great Valley in California. They are a long-lived species as well, with at least one known to have survived for thirty years.

This pair caught my eye last weekend when we exploring around Pillar Point north of Half Moon Bay on the California coast. They were perched on the fence surrounding the Pillar Point airfield and didn't fly off as we drove by, so I stopped and snapped a couple of shots.

Little known fact: Every hawk or eagle in the entire world sounds exactly like a Red-tailed Hawk. Well, o.k., not really. But just about every movie hawk or eagle sounds like a Red-tail. It's the stock sound effect. Like the Wilhem scream, or the screech of tires when an airplane lands. The call of the hawk in the real world is wonderful to hear, however.