Aerial combat at Boeing launch

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Two red-tailed hawks and a crow are seen during a handing off ceremony of the first of six C-17 Globemaster III airlifters built for the United Arab Emirates Air Force and Air Defence at the Boeing final assembly facility at Long Beach Airport on May 10 in Long Beach, California.

Whilst covering the handoff ceremony for a Boeing airlifter in Long Beach, photographer Kevork Djansezian spotted a very different form of aerial combat taking place in the skies above.

UPDATE: In his caption, Djansezian identified the birds of prey as peregrine falcons, but readers contacted us to say that they are red-tailed hawks. We have now confirmed this with Getty Images and updated the caption above. Many thanks to our eagle-eyed readers fred-3455755 and uplandsandpiper.

Discuss this post

One needs to properly id the birds . They are not falcons but are hawks . The wings are wrong shape for falcons .

    Reply#1 - Wed May 11, 2011 8:36 AM EDT

    Red-tailed Hawks to be exact and it is likely the crow is chasing them away instead of vice versa.

      #1.1 - Wed May 11, 2011 10:54 AM EDT
      Reply

      UPDATE: In his caption, Kevork Djansezian identified the birds of prey as peregrine falcons, but readers contacted us to say that they are red-tailed hawks. We have now confirmed this with Getty Images and updated the caption above. Many thanks to our eagle-eyed readers fred-3455755 and uplandsandpiper.

        Reply#2 - Thu May 12, 2011 5:11 AM EDT
        You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead.
        As a new user, you may notice a few temporary content restrictions. Click here for more info.