Red-shouldered Hawk

Buteo lineatus

Order FALCONIFORMES - Family ACCIPITRIDAE - Subfamily Accipitrinae

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A common forest-dwelling hawk of the East and California, the Red-shouldered Hawk favors woodlands near water. It is perhaps the most vocal American hawk.

Cool Facts

• The Red-shouldered Hawk is divided into five subspecies. The four eastern forms contact each other, but the West Coast form is separated from the eastern forms by 1600 km (1000 mi). The northern form is the largest. The form in very southern Florida is the palest, having a gray head and very faint barring on the chest.

• Although the American Crow often mobs the Red-shouldered Hawk, sometimes the relationship is not so one-sided. They may chase each other and try to steal food from each other. They may also both attack a Great Horned Owl and join forces to chase the owl out of the hawk's territory.

• By the time they are five days old, nestling Red-shouldered Hawks can shoot their feces over the edge of their nest. Bird poop on the ground is a sign of an active nest.

• The Great Horned Owl often takes nestling Red-shouldered Hawks, but the hawk occasionally turns the tables. While a Red-shouldered Hawk was observed chasing a Great Horned Owl, its mate took a young owl out of its nest and ate it.

Description

• Size: 43-61 cm (17-24 in)
• Wingspan: 94-111 cm (37-44 in)
• Weight: 486-774 g (17.16-27.32 ounces)

• Medium-sized to large hawk.
• Wings and tail striped black and white.
• Underparts barred reddish.
• Pale crescent near wingtips in flight.

Rusty red on upper part of wing. In flight, rusty wing coverts contrast with black-and-white striped flight feathers. Tail with several wide dark bands separated by thin white ones; tail pattern light below, dark above. Legs and cere yellow. Eyes black.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike; female larger

Immature

Juvenile in East streaked brown and white on underside, brown above, tail with dark and light brown bands, wing crescent tawny. Juvenile in West similar to adult, with more barring than streaking on underside and distinct tail banding.

Similar Species

• Broad-winged Hawk has one broad white band on tail, and is all pale under wings contrasting with dark outline.

Sound

Call a loud "kee-aah," with second note descending in pitch. Often given repeatedly.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from Minnesota to New Brunswick, southward to eastern Texas and Florida, and on Pacific Coast from southwestern Oregon into Baja California.

Winter Range

Winters throughout much of range below Canadian border.

Habitat

Forests with open understory, especially bottomland hardwoods, riparian areas, and flooded swamps.

Food

Small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and crayfish.

Behavior

Foraging

Drops on prey from perch in canopy. May hunt from ground to catch mammals in burrows, hopping after them when they come out.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest a large bowl of sticks, dried leaves, strips of bark, Spanish moss, lichens, and live conifer twigs. Lined with fine bark, mosses, lichens, and conifer twigs. Placed in main crotch of tree, often near water.

Egg Description

Dull white or faint bluish with brown blotches and markings

Clutch Size

2-5 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless, eyes open, covered in buffy brown down.

Conservation Status

The clearing of forests over the last two centuries probably led to decreases in populations of the Red-shouldered Hawk, while increasing habitat for the Red-tailed Hawk. Populations appear stable, but may be declining in some areas.

Other Names

Buse à épaulettes (French)
Bavil an ranero (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Crocoll, S. T. 1994. Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus). In The Birds of North America, No. 107 (A. Poole, and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.