A very cultured bird.

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It's a juvenile female red tail hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) for anyone wondering.

Source: I'm a local licensed falconer.

I was wondering. He was pretty chill. I got within about 10 feet of him. He’s like “I’m a badass and you don’t scare me a bit!”

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Sadly it may have west Nile virus or another illness, birds of prey typically are not that calm and rarely perch that low when they have other options.

I remember seeing a red tailed hawk last summer chilling on a bench near the monuments. I also thought that was odd behavior. I know they are pretty territorial and that is roughly the same area. Any chance that it’s the same hawk that has some weird tendencies or is it more likely that there is something that is affecting multiple hawks in the area? (Presuming most illnesses would have killed off the one I saw in early summer which I don’t know enough about diseases to know)

This sub needs more posts like this! So cool

It's not the same hawk as they molt the juvenile feathers and get the famous red tail after the first year. West Nile affects a lot of birds in the area it's transmitted by mosquitoes. Falconers and the DNR sometimes work together to vaccinate wild birds each year.

Ahhh, I think that makes sense.

Birds are so neat. Thank you for the education on this!

Where does one get a falconer license?

You have to find a licensed falconer to sponsor you, take a test and get 80% or higher and then apprentice under a general or master falconer for two years