Bobbiel's Fotothing

This large hawk often hovers above its prey like a kestrel. Lemmings, other rodents, and birds are its main sources of food during the breeding season. The number of eggs laid by the Rough-leg, like the Snowy Owl, depends on the food supply, with larger clutches occurring in years when lemmings are abundant. At a distance this hawk can be identified by its habit of hovering and by the way it perches: balancing precariously on the most slender twigs at the top of a tree. On the wintering grounds, where it takes larger rodents and upland birds, it can be strikingly tame, probably because it encounters few humans in the Far North.
Taken on the Canadian prairies.