Raving About Raptors

The William L. Finley Wildlife Refuge is BIG - the area encompasses over 5700 acres. There is lots of room for several different kinds of raptors to live and hunt.

First up, is a Golden Eagle - a year around resident in western Oregon.

Not one, but two Bald Eagles watched from this tree.

This is an immature male Bald Eagle. Look at the size of that beak!

Bald Eagles don't get their all white heads until they are around 4 years old.

The other Bald Eagle was a female.

This is a Rough-Legged Hawk. It is a winter resident in Oregon, and spends summers in Alaska and northern Canada. 

Here a Northern Harrier flies low over the ground as it looks and listens for small animals. Their preferred habitat is wide open prairie grasslands.

I think the pretties raptor we saw was this White-tailed Kite.  Kites also like grasslands and can hover while hunting for small mammals.