I photographed a light-morph Ferruginous Hawk this week in eastern Fremont County getting some close up photos when she landed on a utility pole across the road from where I was parked (and photographing with long telephoto plus some cropping). I didn't see it in the field but when I uploaded her photos I saw that she was missing her right eye. Having only one eye is a major problem for birds as it would significantly affect their depth perception which would make grabbing prey a difficult task for a raptor. I have read of raptors with one functional eye--one eagle was kept as an educational bird in a raptor center <http://www.juneauraptorcenter.org/edprofiles.php>as it ran into things. The other raptor, an Eagle Owl <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17555036>, was released as the raptor center that treated it for injuries with an attached radio transmitter that allowed researches to follow her as she successfully raised a 3 offspring while they noted no detectable differences in her behavior compared to fully sighted birds. I wasn't able to look for her again until today due to the snow and extreme cold here but did refind her today. I have uploaded some close-up photos as well as a few of her in flight on my Birds and Nature blog<http://birdsandnature.blogspot.com/>.
I wonder if anyone has had experience with a one eyed hawk? SeEtta Moss Canon City http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAAUvckqf6gCFMXqihZSG5So-4Hq6LxUONg7Ey1%2BBUxcvzrFeTg%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
