Capturing great photos of birds in flight is difficult because it is hard to follow the bird

with a telephoto and maintain focus as the bird approaches. One trick is to try and predict and

pre-focus where the bird will be and then be ready to get the shot when the bird arrives at this spot.

While I enjoy photographing birds, especially colorful or unusual ones, I prefer the raptors, the

the hunters of the sky with their powerful wings, beak and talons. Raptors include Hawks and Eagles

and our founding Fathers chose the Eagle to represent America. I especially like getting action

shots like this Harris' Hawk landing with it's wings spread wide and angled to slow it down, it's tail

spread wide to control it's flight and it's long legs and powerful talons getting ready to grab onto the limb.

This photo was taken at the world famous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson which

has indigenous animals in natural surroundings as well as examples of Sonoran plants

desertmuseum.org