Red-Tailed Hawk Juvenile

Description:

Misidentified by me as a Cooper's Hawk. Thank you Liam for correcting the ID. Size & Shape Red-tailed Hawks are large hawks with typical Buteo proportions: very broad, rounded wings and a short, wide tail. Large females seen from a distance might fool you into thinking you’re seeing an eagle. (Until an actual eagle comes along.) Color Pattern 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 with a dark belly. Behavior You’ll most likely see Red-tailed Hawks soaring in wide circles high over a field. When flapping, their wingbeats are heavy. In high winds they may face into the wind and hover without flapping, eyes fixed on the ground. They attack in a slow, controlled dive with legs outstretched – much different from a falcon’s stoop. Habitat 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.

Habitat:

You’re unlikely to see this bird in your backyard (unless yours is a big one). Red-tailed Hawks eat mostly mammals, so they’re less likely to visit a popular feeder than a Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned hawk is. It’s very rare for a Red-tailed Hawk to go after dogs or cats.

Notes:

This Red Tailed Hawk juvenile was squirrel hunting in one of my neighbors yards. It got one and took it to a nearby tree branch about 2 stories high. Something, probably me, spooked it because it flew off to a nearby flagpole where the squirrel got caught in the flap of the flag. So the squirrel hit the pavement, and the Hawk flew to a nearby tree much higher. After a series of high tree perches, the Hawk circled back to see if it could recover its captured and lost prey. It got close, but by then the human dog-walkers in the neighborhood had gathered to watch the show. I looked up and saw another Hawk descending from a very high altitude. It looked like a leaf falling to the ground it was descending in some tight spiral fashion. I guess that was a parent, because the juvenile never returned for its lost prey. We checked. The squirrel was dead at that point. Neither bird returned for the squirrel. Last pic is from my cell phone of Hawk holding captured squirrel in tree where I first spotted it. The next stop was the flagpole that caused the hawk to drop the squirrel. He never did come back for it and flies were buzzing around it. It was not there in the morning, so something must have gotten to it. From the website link - "The first step with identifying any hawk is to use its size and shape to decide what type you're looking at. Is it one of the three main groups: buteo, accipiter, or falcon? Buteos have broad, rounded wings and short, wide tails, and you often see them soaring without flapping. Red-shouldered Hawks, another common buteo, tend to be smaller than Red-tails with a banded tail and warm brown barring below. Swainson's Hawk has a dark trailing edge to the underside of the wing, and a dark chest. From a distance you might confuse a soaring Red-tail with a Turkey Vulture (also very common across North America in summer), but Turkey Vultures have longer, more rectangular wings, which the birds hold above horizontal, forming an easily visible V. Turkey Vultures are also much less steady when they soar."