Meet our youngest Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicencis).
She was hatched in 2009. Found as a recently fledged youngster with a severely swollen left eye, her left eye did have to be surgically removed. However, she is fully flighted and is often one of our more difficult birds to control. At outreach events or classroom programs, she is usually presented on the glove so her handler has better control of her when she bates (attempts to fly off). At the Festival of the Cranes in Monte Vista, CO, she sat atop her travel box, which was weighted down with a brick, all weekend long. Her ever increasing calmness is a reflection of the great job her trainer has done.

She acquired her adult tail feathers in the summer of 2010. To our surprise, all of her plumage got darker and she is now nearly a rufous morph.