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In my painting, Air Operations, I have depicted a C-130 making a retardant drop on a fire that occurred in the Black Hills in 1990 just south of Custer, South Dakota.  The bird in the foreground (and the one in the lower right background) is a Coopers Hawk (Accipiter Cooperii).  The bird is commonly found from southern Canada all the way to northern Mexico, in the Rocky Mountains and along the Pacific Rim.

It is an incredible sight to watch fires fought by aircraft - but for certain man is not the only one that occupies the sky during, or
has a stake in the course of a wildland fire.  Low-level flying is customary during retardant drops and aerial encounters with a
variety of birds much like the Coopers Hawk are rather common.

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