The Red-tailed Hawk has a hoarse and rasping 2- to 3-second scream that is most commonly heard while soaring.Ĩ5 to 90 % of the Red-tailed Hawk's diet is composed of small rodents. Like all hawks, the Red-tailed Hawk's talons are its main weapons. The eyesight of a hawk is 8 times as powerful as a human's. The Red-tailed Hawk is the most common member of the buzzard hawk family. Hawks are carnivores (meat eaters) who belong to the category of birds known as raptors. Within its range, its frequent soaring and loud voice are good pointers. The adult Red-tailed Hawk is easily identified, for when it leaves its perch on slow, measured wing beats, or turns while soaring overhead, the broad, rounded tail shows a rich, russet red, hence the name. Immatures resemble the adults except their tail is brown with dark bars the red- tail molts during its second year. The underside of the bird is usually light with a dark belly band, and a cinnamon wash on the neck and chest. Adults are dark brown on the back and the top of their wings. The adult has a rufous-colored tail that may or may not have a black terminal bar. This species shows a great deal of individual variation in plumage. As with most raptors, the female is nearly 1/3 larger than the male and may have a wing span of 56 inches. The Red-tail is the largest hawk, usually weighing between 2 and 4 pounds. They include the Red-tailed, the Red-shouldered, the Swainson's, the Rough-legged, and the Ferruginous hawks. They are the broad-winged, broad-tailed soaring hawks that are more readily seen because of their habit of circling high in the air or perching in dead trees or on telephone poles along the road. Because of its habitat and range, it is also the only Falcon or Accipiter that most people are likely to see. It is the only one of the falcons that hover over its intended prey. The American Kestrel is the smallest of our hawks and feeds mainly on mice and insects. A series of strong, rapid wing beats gives them extremely fast flight in open country, and their swiftness allows them to overtake and capture other birds on the wing. Falcons have streamlined bodies, long, pointed wings, and long tails. They include the Prairie Falcon, the Peregrine Falcon (Duck Hawk), the Merlin (Pigeon Hawk), and the dainty little American Kestrel, also called the Sparrow Hawk. Accipiters are associated with brush and timbered areas. Typically, they fly low with a series of rapid wing beats followed by a brief period of sailing, then another series of wing beats. They have long tails and short, rounded wings that enable them to dart through and around trees in pursuit of other birds, their principal prey. The Sharp-shinned Hawk, the Cooper's Hawk, and the Goshawk are Accipiters. The Red-tailed Hawk is a grouping of 14 subspecies, each of which is more or less specific to a geographical area, and differs from the others in size, markings, etc.īased on general body shape and flight habits, hawks are classified into three different groups (genera): the Accipiters, the Falcons, and the Buteos. Yet, until recent years, birds of prey have also been ruthlessly destroyed because of real or imagined competition with humans for game and domesticated animals. The sport of falconry - using raptors as hunting aids - has been practiced in Asia and Egypt since 3000 BC. Since the beginning of recorded history, birds of prey have been both despised and revered. Prey is killed with the long talons and, if it is too large to swallow whole, it is torn to bite-sized pieces with the hawk's beak. They have strong, hooked beaks their feet have three toes pointed forward and one turned back and their claws, or talons, are long, curved, and very sharp. Hawks are carnivores (meat eaters) who belong to the category of birds known as raptors - birds of prey. In winter many of the northern birds move south. Although not truly migratory, they do adjust seasonally to areas with the most abundant prey. The Red-tailed Hawk ranges throughout North America to central Alaska and northern Canada, and south as far as the mountains of Panama.
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