Red-Tailed Hawk

This is a Red-Tailed Hawk that is a resident of The Raptor Conservancy of Virginia. Among many of the dedicated duties of this all-volunteer organization is to rehabilitate and release to the wild the ill, injured and orphaned birds of prey native to Virginia. The Red-Tailed Hawk is one such native bird. I wish I could remember the story (how it came to be a resident at the Conservancy) of this particular bird, but I can't. Sorry about that. Some birds that the Conservancy takes in can't be released back to the wild due to circumstances determined to be detrimental to the birds possibility of survival.

It's a beautiful bird that we see often in northern Virginia.