A red-tailed hawk swoops from its perch atop a juniper scrag to pounce on a field mouse. The hawk’s hooked

bill, adapted for ripping flesh, punctures the mouse as the bird’s dark-brown wings fold into its body.

Only a 4-foot wingspan away, wide-eyed youngsters point and adults remark as the cycle of life spins before their eyes.

This sighting won’t be exclusive to High Desert wilds when the 7,500-square-foot Donald M. Kerr Birds of Prey Center opens at The High Desert Museum at 9 a.m. Saturday. Those who investigate its six naturalistic habitats replete with golden eagles, great horned owls, western screech owls, Swainson’s hawks, turkey vultures, northern spotted owls and others will have a nearly unobstructed view at close range.

Identifying the raptors in each habitat has been simplified thanks to reader rails, which are posted near the habitats and provide clues through text and pictures.

”You might know which bird you’re looking at right away,” says Karen Green, interpretive project manager for the exhibit. ”But if you don’t, the reader rail will help you identify it with a description of the habitat, what kind of raptors inhabit it and pictures of those raptors.”

This weekend’s grand opening of the ”Raptors of the Desert Sky” exhibit also features Native American dances by Rudy Clements and The Quartz Creek Society of Warm Springs, bluegrass-tinged ballads by the Bitterbrush Band and hourly otter presentations and porcupine presentations.

But all eyes will search the ”Desert Sky” for raptors. Tours are offered throughout both days and are accompanied by interpretive activities that illustrate different adaptations birds of prey have developed.

Adventurous youngsters who don’t mind dirty hands can dig into science by dissecting owl pellets to discover bones of rodents. This information is of great value to biologists because it tells them which animals owls most eat, and could possibly provide early clues to an imbalance in an ecosystem, says Tracy Alexander, family programs specialist at the museum.

If, for instance, scientists find an excess of vole bones and fewer shrew remains, there may be a disruption in the food chain. The pellet-dissection activity runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days near the Settler’s Cabin.

Paper plates will be the medium for another activity in which museum volunteers provide youngsters with parts of an owl’s face that they must piece together.

”They learn about the adaptations owls have, like plumicorns,” Alexander says. Plumicorns are the points some owls, like the great-horned owl, have on their heads. Alexander says their purpose is purely affectory, but they are often mistaken for ears, which are actually located behind the owl’s eyes, similar to humans. This activity also runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days.

Parents and youngsters may be drawn to the Birds of Prey pavilion (located near the raptor exhibit’s north entrance) for raptor stories told by Heather McNeil-Nix, youth services coordinator at the Deschutes County Public Library System. McNeil-Nix’s tales also will draw on Native American influences. The event gets under way at 3 p.m.

Representatives from the Peregrine Falcon Fund, based in Boise, Idaho, will lead a discussion at 2 p.m. both days on the organization’s efforts to breed threatened birds like the peregrine falcon and California condor, Alexander says.

After years of planning and a year of construction, museum staffers say the culmination of those efforts into the finished exhibit has sparked a palpable excitement at the museum.

”Most of the time, when we see these birds, we observe them from a distance,” says Forrest Rodgers, acting director for the museum. ”The birds of prey exhibit is important because it’s an exciting opportunity for people to have a personal experience with them.”