talon images - Joel Sartore

A young female snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus).

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BIR025-00109

A young female snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus).

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BIR025-00111

A young female snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus)at the Raptor Recovery Center, in Elmwood, Nebraska.

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BIR040-00222

The talons of an endangered North Philippine hawk-eagle (Nisaetus philippensis) at the Avilon Zoo.

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BIR040-00197

The talons of a Blyth’s hawk-eagle (Nisaetus alboniger) at Jurong Bird Park, of Wildlife Reserves Singapore.

The talons of a South American great horned owl (Bubo virginianus nacurutu) at Parque Jaime Duque near Bogota, Colombia.

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BIR025-00414

The talons of a South American great horned owl (Bubo virginianus nacurutu) at Parque Jaime Duque near Bogota, Colombia.

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BIR025-00413

The talons of a South American great horned owl (Bubo virginianus nacurutu) at Parque Jaime Duque near Bogota, Colombia.

The foot of a short-tailed hawk (Buteo brachyurus) at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey.

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BIR024-00120

The foot of a short-tailed hawk (Buteo brachyurus) at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey.

Picture of bats, songbirds and a hawk killed by a single wind turbine in a year.

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One turbine’s deadly harvest: biologists calculate that on average, 32 bats and five birds are killed in one season by each turbine on this wind farm in southwest Pennsylvania. Big birds aren’t immune, as this red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) shows.

A Harris's hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus harrisi) is held by a handler at the New York State Zoo in Watertown, NY.

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BIR024-00085

A Harris’s hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus harrisi) is held by a handler at the New York State Zoo in Watertown, NY.

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SCE042-00190

Two striated caracaras (Phalcoboenus australis) (IUCN: Near Threatened) or ‘Johnny Rooks’ at the West Falkland’s New Island. The 6,000-acre island has been sold to a natural history trust.