I have followed this female Red-tailed Hawk for several breeding seasons in an area near Canon City, CO. The first year I observed her nesting, she choose a very precarious small ledge on a steep cliff--but it held and her young fledged successfully. The next year she nested in a less precarious location by some large boulders. Sadly I saw one of her fledglings wedged, and apparently dead, head first in a vertical opening in a nearby cliff area--maybe a wind gust caused it to dive head first into the opening where it was unable to get free, very sad. This year she choose this nice size ledge on another cliff which has a cave behind it. This is very convenient as both she and her young have been able to retreat into the cave to avoid the hot afternoon sun. She built at least a good section of nest on the ledge as much nest material can be seen outside the cave part and she tends to perch on the nesting material on the ledge most of the times I have seen her and only occasionally retreating to the shaded comfort of the cave part.
In the bottom pic the mother bird is tearing pieces of some game that she is feeding in small bites to the young nestling barely visible in the pic. There is an older nestling behind her in the cave. SeEtta
I have followed this female Red-tailed Hawk for several breeding seasons in an area near Canon City, CO. The first year I observed her nesting, she choose a very precarious small ledge on a steep cliff--but it held and her young fledged successfully. The next year she nested in a less precarious location by some large boulders. Sadly I saw one of her fledglings wedged, and apparently dead, head first in a vertical opening in a nearby cliff area--maybe a wind gust caused it to dive head first into the opening where it was unable to get free, very sad. This year she choose this nice size ledge on another cliff which has a cave behind it. This is very convenient as both she and her young have been able to retreat into the cave to avoid the hot afternoon sun. She built at least a good section of nest on the ledge as much nest material can be seen outside the cave part and she tends to perch on the nesting material on the ledge most of the times I have seen her and only occasionally retreating to the shaded comfort of the cave part. 
In the bottom pic the mother bird is tearing pieces of some game that she is feeding in small bites to the young nestling barely visible in the pic. There is an older nestling behind her in the cave. SeEtta
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