city dwellers

"The red-tail like other hawks uses its excellent vision to find and secure its prey. The red-tail's eyes are large and deep (a design that allows excellent distance vision) and are each as large as (or even slightly larger than) the bird's entire brain. The red-tail has five-times more visual sensory cells per millimeter of retina than do humans. They also have two areas of intensely concentrated visual cells (the "fovea" which are the areas of most acute vision) compared to but one foveum in humans. The red-tail, like other hawks, also have colored oils in their eyes that refract certain wavelengths of light. This refraction pattern intensifies certain colors at the expense of others. The net consequence of this light filtration is that the browns and grays of typical prey items stand out sharply against the filtered greens of grass and brush."

(this adult and baby has nested on a building ledge high above a busy shopping plaza. probably plenty of squirrels, rats, pigeons for the taking)