What is that bird on the Apple Mail icon? I had always thought it was an eagle, probably a bald-headed one, but I was wrong.
It is a Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, which ranges over most of the North American Continent. Its call, a two to three second rasping will be well-known to anyone who has watched a Western. Or so I read in a posting on the Mac Net Journal.
By all accounts it is an aggressive bird, vigourously defending its territory against intruders. Luckily, its diet is composed almost entirely of small rodents. You can read more about these magnificent birds, as I did, on the Desert USA and U.S. Geological Survey web sites.
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