Every birder knows it—hawks are some of the trickiest birds to identify. Sure, it’s almost always obvious when you’ve seen a hawk. But which hawk? Red-tailed hawks are widespread across most of the ...

It was as dark as the ominous storm clouds swirling mightily above me. And it was only the second time I’d seen this unfamiliar raptor in my 20 years of photographing the Carrizo Plain. I was ...