Photography : Birds : Handsome Harris' Hawk
Those huge eyes and rich auburn color --- what a stunning hawk! He is an outreach animal from Nature's Nursery, a widlife rehabilitation and education facility. His handler said his favoriate food is a nice, plump quail. When they give him rodent for dinner, he makes his displeasure known. Loudly. Since bird eyes are so large, they cannot swivel their eyeballs like humans can; instead, they have to turn their whole head. There is such subtlety of expression in the gaze of a raptor with even the slightest tilt of their head ... if you anthropomorphize a little.
This photo was taken at an outdoor outrech event at the Toledo Botanical Gardens. The local wild bird were freaking out over the presence of such mighty raptors. The hawks and owls, for their part, looked like they wanted to go at the "free buffet" of birdies in the trees above them.
