On Colorado’s eastern plains some grassland bird species have declined by over eighty percent, e.g. Lark Bunting, and native semi-desert grassland, which once covered nearly half the state, is considered Colorado’s most degraded habitat. Among Colorado’s three keystone prairie dog species, all have declined by roughly 95% due to sylvatic plague, fencing, habitat loss, urbanization, energy expansion, crops, livestock, environmental contaminants, and poisoning.  These prairie dogs are a primary food source for many predators with the endangered black-footed ferret relying on them for nearly ninety percent of its diet. Other major predators include coyotes, foxes, badgers, bobcats, Golden Eagles, Ferruginous Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Prairie Falcons, and various snakes. So, as we went looking for raptors this past Saturday, we made sure to check out the prairie dog towns where we could find them.

Before getting to the raptors we saw, there were a few other species that got our attention. First, it was wonderful to see a flock of over a hundred Snow Geese on the wing banking and turning together. Beautiful! And we got to see a small flock of Lapland Longspurs. Note in the photo here that this male is already experiencing enough feather wear to begin exposing its breeding plumage with the emerging black in the neck and breast.

We definitely had great success with our raptors, tallying nine species.  What did we miss? Well, we didn’t see any Northern Shrikes. Not really a raptor, but they do have a raptorial bill, and their old colloquial name of “Butcher Bird” is an appropriate one. We also whiffed on Peregrine Falcon which occurs rarely in the winter out on the plains, but I have had a couple through the years. The big miss was Rough-legged Hawk. Historically, they have been considered a fairly-common to common winter resident on the eastern plains for about six weeks each winter – January through mid-February. However, they are an irruptive species meaning they can show up in good numbers some winters and be absent in others depending on vole, shrew, and Peromyscus (deer mice) availability in the north. With no heavy snowfall on the plains this winter they may be doing fine getting their groceries in Montana and not needing to come further south. A few have been seen in Colorado this winter, but not many.

As for the birds we did see, this warm weather has provided open water in the wetlands and we recorded ten Northern Harriers floating over the tops of the cattails and taller grasses looking for voles and Peromyscus. Red-tailed Hawks are a fairly-common winter resident in all Colorado habitats, and we readily saw several of them. While 90% of our Colorado Red-tails are of the light-morph, we were fortunate to see a rufous-morph in a bit of a conflagration with a Ferruginous Hawk. American Kestrels are a fairly-common year-round resident, so we can tend to count on them, and we saw seventeen on Saturday. We also picked up a Cooper’s Hawk and four Prairie Falcons shredding the sky from horizon to horizon. Additionally, a wonderful sighting was had of an adult Golden Eagle with its paler brown panels on the upper wing coverts and light golden hackles festooning its nape.

While Bald Eagles have made a significant recovery over the past fifty years there is reason for some concern along the Front Range urban corridor as nesting sites are decreasing due to rapid urban expansion, human encroachment, and natural causes like high winds. Nevertheless, the proliferation of reservoirs has served these piscivores well, and we noted a few pairs checking out potential nest sites.

Merlins nest in southwestern and central Wyoming, and there are two confirmed historical breeding records for Colorado from 1877 and 1887. However, since there have been no records for the past 150 years, we view Merlins strictly as a rare to uncommon migrant and winter resident. Globally there are nine subspecies of Merlin, six in Eurasia and three in North America. All three of our North American subspecies have been recorded in Colorado, but by far the most common is the Prairie Merlin which is distinctly paler than the other two subspecies. Interestingly, both of our birds on Saturday were Taiga Merlins, which have a rather dark hood and back (blue-gray in the male and brown in the female), the breast and belly are strongly streaked with brown, and the black in the banded tail predominates.

Ferruginous Hawks are our largest Buteo (soaring hawk). While a Red-tail tends to weigh 2.5 lbs, a Ferruginous Hawk can weigh up to 3.5 lbs. Everything is just a bit bigger on a Ferruginous: bill, gape, feet, wingspan. And while Rough-legged Hawks are eating small rodents and Red-tails are going after bunnies and pocket gophers, Ferruginous Hawks will eat whatever they can get (bunnies and jackrabbits), but particularly in the winter they focus on prairie dogs.

Wiggins to the Arsenal
Feb 7, 2026, 8:33 AM – 3:45 PM
98.0 mile(s)
29 species (+1 other taxa)16 participants

• Snow Goose  200 
• Canada Goose  8
• Cackling/Canada Goose  260
• Mallard  2
• Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  339 
• Eurasian Collared-Dove  34
• Golden Eagle  1
• Cooper’s Hawk  1
• Northern Harrier  10 
• Bald Eagle  9
• Red-tailed Hawk  9 – one rufous morph
• Ferruginous Hawk  5 
• Downy Woodpecker (Eastern)  1
• Northern Flicker  2
• American Kestrel  17 
• Merlin (Taiga)  2
• Prairie Falcon  4 
• Black-billed Magpie  4
• Black-capped Chickadee  3
• Horned Lark  156 
• European Starling  400 
• Townsend’s Solitaire  1
• American Robin  215
• House Sparrow  27
• House Finch  10
• American Goldfinch  13
• Lapland Longspur  12 
• White-crowned Sparrow  10
• Western Meadowlark  35
• Red-winged Blackbird  190