Turkey Vulture
I've seen these birds just about everywhere I've lived or visited in the United States. All of these images are from the Cuyamaca Mountains in California, except for Image 24, which is of a bird perched in early morning light at the Sabal Palm Sanctuary in Brownsville, Texas, and Image 25 from Madera Canyon, Arizona, and the last 4 images are from Pinnacles National Park which is very popular with Turkey Vultures, as well as being a haven for California Condors.
California Condor
Image 1: Three California Condors flying above a ridge slightly to the east of the Campground at Pinnacles National Park, in June of 2022.
Images 2-7: In July of 2023, we spent several days in Pinnacles National Park. On the evening of July 28th, eight condors joined a large kettle of Turkey Vultures circling near the campground. In the morning around 8 am we discovered two condors who were perched in a small dead tree quite close to the campsite where we were staying. The first photo here was taken in this dead tree. We later identified the birds as Pink 89 – full number 889 (“Narcissa”, slightly over six-year-old female – reference: Ventana Wildlife Society website), and Yellow 4 – full number 204 (“Amigo”, slightly over 24-year-old male – reference: Ventana Wildlife Society website). At around 8:45 am, Narcissa flew across the road to a Gray Pine tree with several Turkey Vultures in it within the center of this campground loop, close to campsite #66. She rested, moved around in the tree a bit, and then clambered up a limb of the pine, and finally took flight, as the images show.
Image 8: Two California Condors perched with Turkey Vultures in a Gray Pine slightly north of the intersection of Condor Gulch, Blue Oak and High Peaks Trails in the high country of Pinnacles National Park, July 27, 2023. We were informed that there was a nest in this area.
Bald Eagle
Below are Bald Eagles photographed in the Cuyamaca Mountains, San Diego County, California. They are grouped by year.
2025: A breeding pair. Photos are in reverse chronological order.
2023: Photos are in reverse chronological order. Image one shows one of the eagle pair taking off with a carp near the lake. Image 2 is an immature Bald Eagle (HEM05) which was banded by Bloom Biological Inc. at Lake Hemet in Riverside Co., CA on April 30, 2021. This bird was 2 years and five months old at the time of my photograph. It had been observed and reported at Big Bear, California on July 25, 2023 previously. This photo was taken at Lake Cuyamaca on Sept. 29, 2023. The remaining images show the local breeding pair.
Below are Bald Eagles photographed near Lake Henshaw, San Diego County, California in 2025.
Below are Bald Eagles photographed near Lake Wohlford, San Diego County, California in 2025.
Red-tailed Hawk
An extremely widespread, common species. Images 1 - 3 were photographed at Lake Cuyamaca, California. Image 4 is from the Ramona Grasslands, Ramona, California, where a small rodent was captured and devoured on a power pole.
Zone-tailed Hawk
An uncommon bird in Southern California. This one was photographed at Lake Cuyamaca in San Diego County, California in October.
Swainson's Hawk
This kettle of hawks was seen and photographed on March 25, 2025 from Borrego Springs, California on an unseasonably warm morning (around 10 am). The hawks migrate through this region at this time of year every year.
Red-shouldered Hawk
Photographed at Lake Cuyamaca, California. Image 1 is a bird which was hunting frogs near the lake shore. Image 2 is a bird eating a captured lizard. Image 3 shows a small bullfrog prey item. This species seems to like to eat herps!
Northern Harrier
Photographed at Lake Cuyamaca, California.
White-tailed Kite
Photographed near Lake Cuyamaca, California.
Cooper's Hawk
An adult bird (Image 1) and an immature bird (Image 2), Cuyamaca Mountains, California.
Osprey
Images 1 and 2 are from Santee Lakes, Santee, California, where Ospreys fish in the recreational lakes. Image 3 is from Padre Island, Texas.
Crested Caracara
These birds were photographed in southeast Arizona in May of 2025.
May 9, Morning:
The nest is near a busy highway and visited by photographers from all over the U.S., and beyond. The nest had three nestlings in it, and the parents did a mixture of hunting and scavenging in the surrounding desert to feed themselves and the young. At one point one of the parents brought a Sonoran Gopher Snake to the nestlings. The snake was in very rough shape, and headless. There also was a House Sparrow nest in the same saguaro as the caracara nest! The parent birds came and went without trouble from the big falcons.
May 9, Afternoon:
The temperatures were in the high 90s at this point. The caracaras have two favored saguaros that they perch on, one to the south and the other to the north of the nest. The three saguaros form an almost-straight line. The southern cactus is a "cristate" saguaro, with an unusual growth pattern at its crown, as shown below.
May 10, Early Morning:
The parents brought many food items to the chicks. They were clearly raiding songbird nests nearby, as a nestling (possibly a thrasher) was brought the day before, and two more nestlings, in earlier (but different) stages of development were brought on this morning. Also, at least two deliveries of what looked like rolled tacos were brought to the young! I'm guessing these may have been pieces of large blood vessels from some good-sized mammal found dead in the desert.
Peregrine Falcon
These birds nest along the cliffs at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, San Diego County, California. It can be tricky getting photos of them depending on the marine layer and weather conditions along the coast. These images were taken in May of 2022, when a falcon pair had a nest in a grotto in the sandstone cliffs. The nestlings were quite mature, and were periodically strengthening their wings with flapping exercises. One parent was banded and other was not.
Below are photos from 2025 at Torrey Pines. Images 2 and 3 show falcons resting in grottos in the cliffs. The last two images show a nesting pair. The female is peeking out from her nest grotto and the male is "standing guard" on a nearby cliff.
American Kestrel
The first four images below were taken in the southwesternmost portion of Imperial Beach, San Diego, California. While hunting, the kestrel perched on rocks or stubs of trimmed fronds on palm trunks along the row of palm trees bordering Seacoast Drive and the Tijuana Estuary National Wildlife Refuge. The bird would perch and observe the vegetation for movement of small prey animals, apparently well hidden against the palm trunks. Then after making a capture attempt, it would fly back up to a palm trunk to resume its vigil. The last two images are of a pair of kestrels photographed in a residential community in Borrego Springs, California. The male is the bird with a spotted breast and the female has a rusty-striped breast. The last image shows the female swallowing a lizard!
Great-horned Owl
Photographed in Santee, California. This was a well-photographed nest in a sycamore tree at Santee Lakes. The parent owl is guarding the nest hole in these images, and is taking a little time out to preen in the second photo.
Burrowing Owl
Photographed at the Salton Sea, California, a reliable place to see this species.
