Red-tailed hawk

Name and taxonomy

Johann Friedrich Gmelin described the bird in 1788 as Falco jamaicensis. He worked from an account by John Latham of 1781, based on a specimen from Jamaica. The species now sits in Buteo, a genus Bernard Germain de Lacepede named in 1799. Buteo comes from a Latin word for a buzzard. Europeans call these birds buzzards, while North Americans call them hawks.

The second half of the name points to Jamaica. That island name comes from the Taino word Xaymaca, the land of woods and water. In the United States the bird is one of three called the chickenhawk. It seldom takes an adult chicken, so the name misleads. At least 14 subspecies are recognised, and Harlan's hawk may deserve species rank.

Evolution and relatives

Buteo holds 28 species of medium-sized raptor with heavy bodies and broad wings. The red-tailed hawk is among the largest of them in North America. Swainson's hawk, the rough-legged hawk and the ferruginous hawk are close relatives. All of them overlap with it in prey or in hunting method at some point. The northern goshawk belongs to another genus and competes with it too.

Subspecies differ in colour more than in shape. Harlan's hawk of Alaska and north-western Canada is blackish and white with no warm tones. Krider's hawk of the northern prairies is very pale, with a pink or white tail. The western subspecies calurus has light, dark and rufous morphs. Dark and intermediate birds form 10 to 20 per cent of that western population.

Appearance

The bird is blocky and broad, and heavier than other hawks of the same length. Most colour forms show a whitish belly crossed by a dark brown band. The back runs from light auburn to deep brown. The bill is short, dark and hooked, and the head can look small on the thick body. The cere, the legs and the feet are yellow.

An adult tail is plain brick-red above and ends in a single black band. Young birds are harder to name, and their tails carry about six dark bars. The iris starts yellowish and darkens to reddish brown over three to four years. The tail measures 18.8 to 25.87 centimetres. The hind talon is the largest of any hawk in its family.

Females run up to 25 per cent larger than males, which is normal in large raptors. Males weigh from 690 to 1,300 grams and females from 900 to 2,000 g. Migrants at Cape May in New Jersey are the heaviest measured, with females averaging 1,278 g. The breeding birds of Puerto Rico are the lightest, at 795 g for a male. Even so, the heaviest race averages only about 18 per cent above the lightest.

Habitat and range

Breeding covers central Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, then runs east to the Maritime Provinces. It reaches south to Florida, the West Indies and Central America. The winter range covers southern Canada and everything south of it. Only the peregrine falcon uses more kinds of habitat in North America. The hawk fails only where forest is unbroken or the Arctic is too harsh.

The ideal ground is a mix of woodland and open field with tall perches. Scrub desert, montane grassland, pasture, city parks and tropical rainforest all hold birds. Nests sit at a forest edge, in a wooded fence line or in a lone tree among open land. Pairs defend territories of 0.85 to 3.9 square kilometres. Home ranges run from 1.3 to 5.2 sq km, depending on food, sex and season.

Human settlement has helped this hawk more than it has hurt it. Clearing forest in the north-east made hunting ground, and the woodlots that were left held nest sites. Fire control and tree planting on the Great Plains let the species spread west. Highways with utility poles beside open medians created ideal perch hunting. The bird tolerates crowds and nests in cities, where pigeons and brown rats feed it.

Diet and hunting

Small rodents make up 80 to 85 per cent of the diet. Mice, voles, gophers, chipmunks, ground squirrels and tree squirrels lead the list. Rabbits and hares come next, then shrews, bats, pigeons, quail, crows and waterfowl. Reptiles, fish, crustaceans, insects and earthworms fill out the rest. On Caribbean islands the birds live mostly on snakes and lizards instead.

A hawk will take prey heavier than itself when the chance appears. Adult jackrabbits, striped skunks and western diamondback rattlesnakes have all been killed. Carrion is eaten when nothing else offers, though the bird does not seek it. A captive adult eats about 135 grams of food a day in winter. The hawk does not store food for later.

Two hunting methods cover most kills. The bird watches from a pole, tree or bluff and drops onto whatever moves below. It also scans while flying, then chases prey on the ground and pins it with the talons. Pairs sometimes hunt together, working opposite sides of a tree to drive out a squirrel. In cruising flight it travels at 32 to 64 kilometres per hour, and a dive can pass 190 km/h.

Behaviour and social life

The hawk soars with its wings raised in a shallow V and flaps as little as it can. Powered flight is slow, with deep beats. In a headwind the bird can hang almost motionless above one patch of ground. Birds are active by day and spend clear mornings circling their own ground. The female guards the nest area, while the male patrols the outer boundary.

Most northern birds migrate, and the far north empties in autumn. Coastal populations in the Pacific Northwest and Nova Scotia stay put all year. Autumn watches in Ontario, Quebec and the northern states count 4,500 to 8,900 birds. Hawk Ridge in Duluth, Minnesota has logged up to 15,000 in one season. Unlike some relatives, these hawks pass one at a time rather than in flocks.

Spring movement can start in late February and peaks in late March and early April. Derby Hill at Oswego in New York has counted up to 19,000 birds in a spring. More than 5,000 have passed there in a single day. Smaller birds mob a hawk that perches too openly. Crows working together can drive one off a carcass.

Communication and senses

The call is a hoarse rasping scream that lasts two or three seconds. It starts high and slides down, and people compare it to a steam whistle. The bird calls while hunting and soaring, and loudest at a rival or a predator. Close up it makes a croaking note instead. Chicks give soft peeping calls that deepen as they grow hungry and older.

Film and television use that scream for almost any bird of prey on screen. The bird shown is often an eagle, which sounds nothing like it. Posture carries messages too, with the body upright and the feathers raised in threat. A submissive bird lowers its head and flattens its feathers. Display flights include an undulating line for territory and a steep dive.

Sight probably does most of the hunting work. The hawk picks up the movement of a mouse from a great distance. Courting pairs swoop at each other and touch talons in the air. A yellowish iris marks a young bird at close range. The flight outline is often the only clue a watcher gets on a distant bird.

Reproduction and life cycle

Birds first breed at two or three years old. A pair keeps the same mate for years and takes a new one only when the first dies. The same territory may be held for many seasons. In courtship both birds circle wide and call, and the male dives and climbs again. He sometimes grips her talons in mid-air, and such flights last 10 minutes or more.

The pair builds a nest of sticks in a tall tree, 4 to 21 metres above the ground. A cliff ledge 35 m or higher will serve, and so will a building or a pylon. The nest measures 71 to 97 centimetres across and can stand 90 cm tall. Twigs form the frame, and bark, pine needles, husks and stalks line the cup. Fresh greenery is added through the season to keep the nest clean.

The female lays 1 to 5 eggs in spring, about one every other day. Both parents incubate for 28 to 35 days, and the male brings food to the sitting female. Chicks hatch helpless over 2 to 4 days, and the female tears food into pieces for them. They start to leave the nest after 42 to 46 days. Learning to fly and hunt takes about 10 more weeks, and the oldest wild bird reached 30.7 years.

Predators and threats

An adult red-tailed hawk has few enemies. Great horned owls kill hawks of any age, and the hawks never kill adult owls. Owls, crows and raccoons take most eggs and nestlings. Golden eagles, bald eagles and ferruginous hawks rob the bird of its kills. Owls also seize hawk nests, because they cannot build one themselves.

Most young hawks die in their first two years. Shooting, collisions with cars and disturbance at the nest cause most human-related losses. Lead shot swallowed with prey poisons a number of birds every year. City hawks eat rats that have taken warfarin bait and can bleed internally as a result. A bird that survives its early years may live for decades.

Population and conservation

The species is common and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern. The United States alone holds about one million birds. The range has widened over the past hundred years. Patchy woodland beside open land created the habitat that suits it. iNaturalist holds 356,404 records of the species, more than for most raptors.

The gain may not be permanent. Where those patches close into full forest, or open into bare prairie, the habitat is lost. NatureServe rates the bird secure across Canada and in Ontario. The Migratory Bird Treaty protects it in Canada, Mexico and the United States. It also appears on Appendix II of CITES, which controls trade.

Relationship with humans

Farmers gain from the hawk, which eats mice, moles and other crop pests. ADW records no negative effect of the species on people. The old name chickenhawk still colours how some people see it. City birds may become public figures in their own right. A hawk called Pale Male arrived in Central Park in 1991 and nested on a Fifth Avenue building.

In December 2004 the building removed his nest, and the protest reached the world's press. The Audubon Society and city agencies had a nest cradle back in place within weeks. Pale Male took eight mates over three decades and died in 2023 at the age of 33. His descendants now nest across New York City. Watchers still set telescopes beside the Central Park boat pond.

Falconers in the United States use this hawk more than any other. It is calm, easy to train, long-lived and resistant to disease. Novice falconers are allowed to fly it, which few other raptors permit. It works best on ground quarry, chiefly rabbits and squirrels. Fewer than 5,000 falconers practise in the country, so the take is negligible.

In culture and myth

Many Native American nations treat the feathers of this hawk as sacred. The tail feathers in particular appear on regalia and in ceremony. They stand beside the feathers of the bald eagle and the golden eagle in that role. United States law treats all three the same way. The eagle feather law makes an exception to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Enrolled members of federally recognised tribes may hold the feathers for ceremonial use. The Fish and Wildlife Service hands them out through the National Eagle Repository. A first offence against that law risks a fine of 100,000 dollars and a year in prison. John James Audubon painted and described the bird in the 1830s. He treated Harlan's hawk separately and called it the Black Warrior.