The Zoospecies · habitats · children's zoo · care
The Zoo · New exhibits · Condors, eagles, ospreys, hawks, falcons, owls

Raptors

Hooked beak, gripping talons, eyes that see a rabbit from a kilometer up. Tampa Bay is one of the best places in the country to watch birds of prey.

Photo: El Golli Mohamed · Wikimedia Commons
Tools of the trade

Feet and beaks

Feet and beaks of birds of preyFour drawings: an osprey foot with two toes forward and two back; an eagle foot with three forward and one back; an owl foot that can swing one toe back; and hooked beaks of a falcon with a tooth-like notch and a vulture with a long open nostril. OspreyEagleOwlFalcon beakVulture beak 2 toes forward, 2 back: grips fish3 forward, 1 back halluxouter toe swings either waynotch "tooth" snaps the necklong, weak: tears soft meat
The condor's comeback. In 1982 only 22 California condors were alive. By 1987 every one had been captured for breeding at the Los Angeles Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park. Releases began in 1992. At the end of 2025 there were 607 condors, 392 of them flying free in California, Arizona, Utah, Baja California and the Pacific Northwest (USFWS). Lead from bullet fragments in carcasses is still the main killer.

Vultures and condors

California condor

Gymnogyps californianus
CRCritically endangered

Andean condor

Vultur gryphus
VUVulnerable

Eagles, osprey, hawks and kites

The bald eagle nearly vanished from the lower 48 states because DDT thinned its eggshells; after the U.S. banned DDT in 1972 it recovered and left the endangered list in 2007. Florida has the densest nesting population outside Alaska: an estimated 1,488 nests in the 2023-24 season, against 88 active pairs in 1973 (FWC).

Bald eagle

Haliaeetus leucocephalus
LCLeast concern

Golden eagle

Aquila chrysaetos
LCLeast concern

Osprey

Pandion haliaetus
LCLeast concern

Red-tailed hawk

Buteo jamaicensis
LCLeast concern

Red-shouldered hawk

Buteo lineatus
LCLeast concern

Cooper's hawk

Astur cooperii
LCLeast concern

Swallow-tailed kite

Elanoides forficatus
LCLeast concern

Falcons

Peregrine falcon

Falco peregrinus
LCLeast concern

American kestrel

Falco sparverius
LCLeast concern

Owls

Great horned owl

Bubo virginianus
LCLeast concern

Barred owl

Strix varia
LCLeast concern

Burrowing owl

Athene cunicularia
LCLeast concern

Barn owl

Tyto alba
LCLeast concern

Snowy owl

Bubo scandiacus
VUVulnerable
Grades K–5

How does an owl fly so quietly?

Owl feathers have soft, fuzzy edges like a comb. They break up the air so the wings hardly make a sound, and a mouse never hears the owl coming.

For classes
Grades K-2
The Nest: Predict the beakPreview
Grades 3-5
The Bird Aviary: Watch one birdPreview
Grades 6-8
Ecosystems: A Web from the WallPreview
Grades 9-12
Public History XI: Wild America, from 1,091 bison to the wolves' returnPreview

Drawer: Zoo: Raptors QR LACWAK

Quiz: Raptors quiz · 7 questions

Next door: Vultures · Aviary zone (bald eagle) · Natural history: bird room

Sources

Checked November 2026. Figures marked (est.) are estimates; statuses are flagged in the catalog for re-checking against the live IUCN Red List before acceptance.

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