I finished this today. It actually started as a sketch of a different bird but the second I started painting I realized I wanted to paint a red-tailed hawk.
We have a lot of these birds in the western US and I always enjoy seeing them perched on fences and telephone poles. They are at home in the countryside so I painted a farmstead in the background.
This evening I was able to photograph a a few of our feathered friends from in my backyard. Every year we have a return of the cliff swallows to a nest they built on our gutter. This time I was able to not only see the parent birds but the growing baby bird within.
Also we had a lot of ruby-throated hummingbirds fluttering around and I was able to get some nice images of them perched and one taking flight.
