Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk: Large, highly variable hawk with brown upperparts, head and throat. The underparts are pale with brown streaks. Wings are pale below with dark bar at leading edge and dark tips. The tail is red-brown with dark terminal band. Legs and feet are yellow. Soars on thermals and updrafts.

● Song: "keeer-r-r"

● Foraging & Feeding: Red-tailed Hawk: Eats mostly small mammals, but also takes birds and reptiles; male Red-winged Blackbirds are often eaten because of their vulnerability when guarding nests.

● Breeding & nesting: Red-tailed Hawk: Two to three white to pale blue eggs, sometimes spotted with brown, are laid in a nest constructed from twigs, lined with pine needles and bark, and built in a large tree. Eggs are incubated for about 30 days by both parents; male may bring female food while she is on the nest.

● Similar species: Red-tailed Hawk: Rough-legged Hawk has unmarked flight feathers, a white comma on the outermost underwing coverts, and lacks brown tail. Dark morph Swainson's Hawk has dark flight feathers and white undertail coverts.

Flight Pattern