GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
A rare and lovely ferruginous hawk, Buteo regalis,
in Hovenweep, Utah.
Cuz it's the day before my birdday ...
Image: Dave Rintoul.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains. But if we decide to destroy these other life forms, the least we can do is to know what we are destroying by learning that they exist. If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image (I prefer JPG format) that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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Comments
Lovely bird, way back in middle school I mounted one of these in our bird club. One of the science teachers had a large set of old stuffed birds we restored (donated from a local estate of some sort) and we also would also get "fresh" birds to add to the collection. I particularly remember the ferruginous hawk, she had been in a rehabilitation program when she mysteriously died and was then given to us.
The odd thing was her neck was not right, it was somehow stiff in the wrong way and we assumed that that was related to her original injuries. Only later did my incidental autopsy reveal the real culprit, she had a peacock leg stuck in her throat, folded over at the knee with the foot and everything still articulated. Later we found out that she had killed a peacock in the week before she died where they were tending her. I don't know what really happened but I was under the impression that she had escaped into a larger enclosure where she was not meant to be.
Still, I never would have believed that a hawk like that would or could swallow a peacock leg effectively whole. If that is what did her in though, I guess you could say that it did not work out so well.
That was in 8th grade a couple of decades ago so I may be a bit off, I wonder if I could still track that teacher and ask if he remembers.
Posted by: Ukko | January 30, 2007 4:08 PM
Is he one-legged? Or do they sit with a leg tucked up?
Posted by: The Ridger | January 30, 2007 6:27 PM
this guy has one leg tucked up.
Posted by: GrrlScientist | January 30, 2007 10:04 PM