Red-shouldered Hawk

Buteo lineatusOrder: FALCONIFORMESFamily: Kites, Eagles and Hawks (Accipitridae)

Overview

Red-shouldered Hawk: Large hawk with brown upperparts and head. Underparts are white with rust-red barring. The wings are finely barred above with red-brown shoulders and pale below with red-brown wash and dark tips. Tail is dark with thick white bands.

Range and Habitat

Red-shouldered Hawk: Resident in the eastern woodlands and west of the Rocky Mountains; also in New England and the Great Lakes region during the summer.

Listen:

Voice Text

"Kee-yer"

Red-shouldered Hawk

● Song: "Kee-yer"

● Foraging & Feeding: Red-shouldered Hawk: Diet of consists of small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and large insects. Hunts while perched or soaring.

● Breeding & nesting: Red-shouldered Hawk: Two to six brown marked, white to blue eggs are laid in a large stick nest lined with finer materials and built in a tree. Eggs are incubated for 28 days by the female; male brings her food on the nest.

● Similar species: Red-shouldered Hawk: Broad-winged Hawk lacks red shoulders, has black-and-white bands on tail of even width, and a crisp black border on underwings.

Flight Pattern

Soars on thermals., Fairly rapid stiff wing beats., Soars on flat wings and glides on slightly drooped wings.

● Range & Habitat: Red-shouldered Hawk: Resident in the eastern woodlands and west of the Rocky Mountains; also in New England and the Great Lakes region during the summer.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationFairly common

^MigrationSome migrate

^Weight17.6 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America