Red-tailed Hawk

Description:

Red-tailed Hawks are large hawks with typical Buteo proportions: very broad, rounded wings and a short, wide tail. Most Red-tailed Hawks are rich brown above and pale below, with a streaked belly and, on the wing underside, a dark bar between shoulder and wrist. The tail is usually pale below and cinnamon-red above, though in young birds it’s brown and banded. “Dark-phase” birds are all chocolate-brown with a warm red tail. “Rufous-phase” birds are reddish-brown on the chest.

Habitat:

John Bunker Sands Wetland Center, Seagoville, Tx. These ideas reflect and extend the vision of Bunker Sands, a holistic ranch management advocate, who directed the creation of over 2,100 wetland acres on Rosewood Ranches properties in Kaufman, Henderson, Ellis, and Navarro counties. The constructed wetlands included seasonal emergent wetlands, scrub swamps and flooded bottomland hardwood forest. Several of the original wetlands occurred at Rosewood’s Seagoville Ranch, the site of the Center and of the East Fork Wetland Project, developed and operated by North Texas Municipal Water District.

Notes:

The Red-tailed Hawk is a bird of open country. Look for it along fields and perched on telephones poles, fenceposts, or trees standing alone or along edges of fields. Caught just a glimpse as it took off from the tree.