As we were walking around the ranch in New Mexico looking for bears, we were entertained by hawks swirling overhead looking for lunch. I looked later in National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Western Region
and based on that, thought this was a Swainson's Hawk.
But, a little more research, and consulting an actual bird expert naturalist, identified it as a Red-tailed Hawk. Although, you need better eyes than mine to make the distinction. Even the All About Birds site puts the Red-tailed and Swainson's hawks on the same page.
He was concentrating on the grasslands below until a raven appeared. He didn't like the raven trying to horn in on his buffet, and so turned and chased him off. I was lucky to get this shot.
Luckily I had the 300mm zoom lens on the camera and pretty much just aimed and fired. It's hard to focus on something moving so fast, so I took some time to set the aperture to 9 so as to get some depth of field. So, the focus was good, and the backlighting from the strong mountain sun made for a lovely shot.
Stunning pix of that Swainsons! You might consider sending it to the Cornell Dept of Ornithology.
Thanks, Nina. I’ve contacted them. Good idea.