A Red-tailed hawk, perched outside a Jewel-Osco, 3400 N. Western Ave., on Nov. 21, 2020. (WTTW News)

It’s that time of year when most people’s thoughts turn to turkey. But it was an unexpected appearance by an altogether different bird that had shoppers at the Roscoe Village Jewel-Osco whipping out their camera phones over the weekend.

Red-tailed hawk, spotted Nov. 21, 2020, in Roscoe Village. (Courtesy of Greta Pearl)

A juvenile red-tailed hawk in flight. (edbo23 / Pixabay)

Red-tailed hawks have adapted to almost every habitat, from the forests of Canada and Alaska to desert climates, according to Sell. They can be found in almost every neighborhood park in the city, with some making their permanent home in Chicago and others migrating through.

“If you start paying attention to hawks, you notice them more,” he said. “Look up. They tend to soar.”

Even for a lifelong birder like Sell, a hawk sighting, especially such a close encounter, is never a ho-hum occasion.

“Everybody stops to see a raptor up close,” he said. “We don’t tend to see them often, and when we do, it’s usually a big deal. They’re very big — a hawk, they really stand out. And they’re beautiful. I think that’s the other thing: There’s kind of a majestic beauty to raptors.”

Sell surmised that the fence-sitting hawk spotted at Jewel was, like its fellow shoppers, in search of a meal, maybe a squirrel or a mouse. (Cooper’s hawks, by contrast, dine on other birds.) That would explain why the raptor stood its ground, even in the face of the iPhone paparazzi.

“If they’re really focused on their prey, they’re locked in and the rest of the world disappears,” Sell said.

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