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Zone-tailed hawk        Images © Mark A. Chappell

Zone-tailed hawks are birds of Arizona and Latin America.   They are typically found in mountain forests and canyons, and have a close resemblance to turkey vultures when in flight.   Some speculate this is a form of mimicry that lets zone-tails 'fool' other species and perhaps get closer to prey without alarming them.   However, it doesn't always work, as can be seen in the shot of a raven hassling a zone-tail.   The adult bird was in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona.   The vagrant juvenile was in Escondido, California, out of the species' normal range.   It never came very close and these images are highly cropped.

  • Canon 1D4 or R5, 800 mm IS lens (2011, 2022)