The Story
I photographed Astro, a Harris’s Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus), coming in to land at the Avian Reconditioning Center in Apopka, Florida, United States, in October 2020, with his wings poised and talons ready. Harris’s Hawks are known for hunting cooperatively in groups, while most other raptors hunt alone. Within a group the mature female is dominant, followed by the adult male and then the young of earlier years. They are 46 to 59 centimeters long with a wingspan of about 103 to 120 centimeters. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/2500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400. The Avian Reconditioning Center is a nonprofit in Apopka that has rehabilitated injured and orphaned birds of prey since 2001 and releases healthy raptors back to the wild.
©2023 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Harris’s Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus) belongs to the family Accipitridae (Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2024). Source: IUCN Red List