‘Western’ Red-tailed Hawk
By Charlie • January 27, 2007 • 20 commentsWestern Red-tailed Hawks Buteo jamaicensis
California, various dates 2004 - 2007
By far the most common and widespread buteo in North America, the Red-tailed Hawk is a bird of woodland and of open country, frequently seen sitting on telegraph poles or bare branches where it watches for rodents in the grass below (it’s worth noting that in strong winds they will sometimes hover - causing potential confusion with the longer-winged and larger Rough-legged Hawk/Buzzard Buteo lagopus, particularly in open country where the latter might be expected).
Apparently increasing across most of its range, displacing other hawk species as a consequence, Red-tailed Hawks breed from Alaska to Labrador, southward to Mexico and the Caribbean, down to Panama and winter from southern Canada southward.
The Red-tailed Hawks found in California are extremely variable in appearance with light (the majority of birds), intermediate, and dark forms (in combination these two forms amount to about 10-20% of the population). Whilst adult Red-tailed Hawks show plain red tails, it’s important to note that non-adults do not - they have barred tails instead.
The following discussions are based on the descriptions of Red-tailed Hawks in Sibley’s “The North American Bird Guide” (Pica Press, 2000) and my own photographs.
Photo 1: Adult “Light form”. Panoche Valley, California. Jan 2007
- Light form: Head darkish brown. Throat dark (”western” forms) or white (though Sibley states this is indicative of his “southwestern” form). Chest buffy-white or with rusty streaks. Dark band of streaks across belly variable, from very dark to nearly absent. Dark patches (the “patagials”) at leading edge of wing are distinctive and should almost be the first character to look for on a flying bird. Dark trailing edge. Back dark brown with white mottling; white forming spotty “V” on shoulders. May show pale eyestripe.
Juveniles essentially quite similar, but recognisable by barred tail, pale primaries, and lack of reddish tones to the wing-linings and body feathers.
- Intermediate form: Head dark. Chest rusty or rufous (colour can be hard to make out sometimes). Dark band across breast. Underwing coverts and axillaries dark. Tail looks barred viewed from below when bird perched.
- Dark form: Dark brown all over (though apparently may show some rufous on chest). In flight, head and wing-linings are dark contrasting with pale flight feathers (again with dark trailing edge).
(The distinctive “Harlan’s Hawk” - which typically occurs east of the Rockies - is a predominantly dark form: it is the only form in which adults have no red on the tail.)
‘Light’ form
Photo 2: Adult. Panoche Valley, California. Jan 2007
Note whitish throat and dark breast streaks
Photo 3: Adult. San Dimas, California. April 2006
Photo 4: Adult. San Dimas, California. April 2006
Photo 5: Adult. San Dimas, California. April 2006
Photo 6: Juvenile. San Dimas, California. April 2006
Photo 7: Juvenile. San Dimas, California. April 2006 (just after interacting with two adults)
Photo 8: Adult. Merced, California. March 2005
Photo 9: Juvenile. Merced, California. March 2005
‘Intermediate’ form
Photo 10 and 11: Adult. Panoche Valley, California. January 2007
Photo 12: Adult. Panoche Valley, California. January 2007
Photo 13: Adult. Panoche Valley, California. January 2007
Photo 14: Juvenile. Panoche Valley, California. January 2006
All photos copyright Charlie Moores
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i have seen about 100+ hawks today forming in the sky above my house in Butte County California, North of Sacramento. Is this the migration forming for them. I have lived 54 years in Northern California and have never experienced this siting before in my life. Is it just possible they are so quick it took me 54 years to see it? They formed and waited for a few strays then took off, all within about a half of an hour or so.
Nature at it’s best I guess. Glad I finally seen this miracle if it does happen every fall. 54 years! Man I guess I will be looking for it next year.
Roxanne
We live in the San Gabriel foothills of L.A. and this evening saw 25 to 40 Red tails circling, we watched for 1/2 hour or so. There seemed to be pairs at times, most seemed to be adults…I have never witnessed this behavior before…what’s up?
[...] the animal. There was no sign of the second hawk. We were close enough now we could see it was a Red-tailed Hawk, but we still couldn’t find the animal that had managed to escape it’s [...]
I love these pics. they give so much detail of just on single bird!
Can u please answer a quetion? Today I seen a hawk. To me from what I tried to find out it was Western Redtailed hawk. The HAWK I seen the BREAST OF IT WAS RED /RUST COLOR MORE LIKE RUST. I live in Connecticut
Hi Gregg
The eastern forms of Red-tailed Hawk are very similar to the western birds in many respects, so a Red-tailed Hawk in Connecticut would look pretty much like the birds on the blog. Without seeing your bird though it’s not possible for me to rule out Red-shouldered Hawk or even a brightly-coloured juvenile harrier, both of which can look ‘rusty’.
Cheers
Charlie
Hi Charlie,
I live in Long Beach, CA and for about a year now, we have had a pair of hawks living and feeding in our neighborhood. We had such joy watching them raise one of their babies.
Then about five days ago the male got run over by a car and the female has been crying, flying from tree to tree, but I have not seen her eat. Does she know her mate is dead? What is she going to do? Will she move on or start eating again and find another mate? It is so very sad. Do you have any idea what is going on in that beautiful head of hers?
Hi Jill
It’s very sad when a bird loses its life to a car…a very unnatural way to die.
There are different schools of thought about whether birds are capable of emotions like ‘love’ (they obviously feel fear, anxiety etc). It’s just not possible for anyone to say with any certainty whether she ‘misses’ her mate or not in terms we’d relate to: she will know that her mate is no longer around and bringing food to the chicks, but whether she feels emotional loss is anyone’s guess. I’m sure though that she will find another mate, she will continue doing her best to raise her young, and she will ‘move on’ much faster than a human in a similar position would - simply because she has no choice whatsoever: if she is to survive she will need to.
I’m sorry if I sound unemotional - I feel your sadness, I really do, but whether the female hawk is ’sad’ is (I think) unlikely: imagine how hunters would feel if it was proved otherwise though…
Hi Charlie, I’ve been trying to identify a bird I saw and have been having some trouble with it. Your post was really informative, so I thought I’d see if you might know what I’m talking about.
I’m quite certain it was a red-tailed hawk, though I didn’t notice the tail color real well. It was brownish at least, probably red, and had the typical buteo body and wing shape. It had a dark patagial bar and dark primaries. The really striking thing about it was the rest of the bird was a mixture of white and golden brown. The belly and under-feathers were mostly white with spots of that brown, the head and trailing edge of the wings were brown, and the top of the body and rest of the wings were mottled.
I’m wonderfing what subtype of red-tailed hawk this is, or if its a juvenile? I’m from Oregon, if that helps. I’m not much of a birder, I’m just very curious because I haven’t seen a hawk with that much white before. Thanks!
Hi Trista. I think you’re almost certainly describing a young Red-tailed. Without seeing it I can’t be 100% sure but if it had a dark patagial bar and was a typical Red-tailed shape then it’s pretty certain that’s what it was. Body plumage in young buteos can be extremely variable, but the shape/structure is always similar to adults (once they’ve fledged of course). Your description of “the rest of the bird was a mixture of white and golden brown. The belly and under-feathers were mostly white with spots of that brown, the head and trailing edge of the wings were brown, and the top of the body and rest of the wings were mottled” sound good for young Red-tailed - and if I were throwing caution to the wind I’d probably really be saying, ‘Yes, young Red-tailed 100%’ on that alone.
Cheers
Thanks Charlie!
Hello,
My husband and I live in San Diego on top of a hill called Mt. Helix. We are at 1200 feet and 12 miles from the ocean. We have many hawks where we live, expecially at this time of year. Mother’s with 2 or 3 babies, teaching them to fly, hunt, etc. Really fun to watch.
Yesterday, we had one sitting on our railing in our back yard. It was like the photo in #8, with a white chest - very large!! We have 9 hummingbird feeders, with about 30 small hummers at our home all day long. The hawks have found them and I believe this is what attracted him to land at our house. After watching him for some time, I ran out our glass sliding door with my arms flapping, yelling to scare him,(from the hyummingbirds only) and he took off, circled and dove right at me. Guess he was not easily intimidated. He did return later that same day, with another one not quite as large, so I guess he will be back again. His wing span was approximately 3+ feet. I thought it was a red tail, but his tail was not red. I had no idea they got this large. Any idea what kind he might be?
Thank you for your time, Jimer
Hi Jimer
Apologies for the delayed response.
Without seeing any images I really can’t be sure, but my best bet would be that your bird is a juvenile Red-tailed - which would explain the lack of a red tail (only adults have them). They do look surprisingly large close up don’t they!
I don’t think it will actually be after your hummingbirds: red-tailed mainly eat small mammals, and though they do hunt birds sometimes there’s so little ‘meat’ on a hummingbird I’m not sure it would bother - perhaps it’s just found a convenient perch where it feels safe and has a good all-round view? However I may be wrong of course!
All the best
Charlie
Hello — I live in the Koreatown area of LA. I have seen a pair of red tail hawks at various times in the area — there are quite a few tall palm trees that they may be able to nest in? Last spring we saw a pair do the courtship thing with the screeching. Then today, I saw one circling, and it looked like two smaller ones. The larger one had the colorings of a red tail, but the smaller ones looked dark. But the shape of the wings and the soaring was exactly like the adult (mother)? Could that have been her two young?
Then when they came lower, the adult landed on a lamp post and perched there for a long time, right on Olympic Blvd. Looked right at me. Amazing.
@Jude: Once Red-tailed Hawks leave the nest they are actually usually larger than the adults. This is because they have “training feathers,” or larger feathers that make up a bit for their inexperience flying. After the bird’s first molt their feathers grow in normal-sized. Young hawks would look darker though, and males are generally smaller than females, so maybe you saw two particularly small young males with a large adult female? Or maybe you had another common hawk for your area, a Red-shouldered Hawk? The shape is mostly the same and they are noticeably smaller.
HI Charlie:
Thanks for your work here.
I live in North Carolina, and just saw a raptor that was the largest and most different “hawk/eagle” I’ve ever seen. Looks like your #10, streaked rust breast, rust head. The only hawks I’ve seen here (Coopers, red tails, red shoulder) have tan / white breasts. This was twice as large as any of those…more the size of an eagle. Looks similar to golden eagle, but when it took flight, wings were white and tan striped underneath, like hawks.
Thanks for any insights.
Hi:
I live in North Carolina and a large adult red-tailed hawk has taken up residency in the woods around our house. Lots of good-tasting squirrels I imagine. However, we have a small dog, 12 pounds, and it makes me nervous to let him go outside without me around. I’ve heard stories of course about hawks & puppies, but does anyone know if a red-tailed can actually pick up a mammal of that weight? Thanks, Pam
Hi Pam
Even really large female Red-taileds (females are larger than males) don’t weigh much more than 3lbs. A really large female might be able to pick up an animal weighing around 5lbs. For a Red-tailed a ‘large’ mammal is something like a rabbit, hare, or a squirrel, so if your dog is 12lbs and healthy I think there’s really no chance at all that it could be taken by your local hawk. Remember that all predators need to weigh up the risk in taking prey (specifically will the prey fight back and injure them), and though it’s of courseeasy for me to say ‘don’t worry’, even a small adult dog of 12lbs is going to be too risky (from a hawk’s point of view) to even attempt to take - and if as you say the hawk has plenty of squirrels to feed on I don’t think it would even look at your dog twice (except to make sure that it’s keeping well out if its way!).
All the best
Charlie
OK, thanks so much for the information. I think I may breathe a bit easier as we all cohabit our forest environment. Yesterday I actually saw the red-tailed hawk swoop down & pick up a squirrel; flew off easily with that prey! Pam
Hi,
I live in Vancouver, BC (specifically right on the boarder to the US, along the coast). I was on the beach today with my 15lb dog, and the tide was way out. I am used to keeping my eyes on the sky as we have many bald eagles and they periodically have been known to take small dogs; however today was a bit different… There were 7 (of what I first thought were eagles), that landed out on the sand near the water’s edge. I got as close as I could to see them (tightly holding my dog of course), and can tell you that they did not have the distinctive white head, although they looked just as big. They appeared quite dark in color, and made sounds similar to eagles. A bit later one flew over my head and the underbelly was rusty brown (definitely not white), although it did have the buteo shape from what I can tell. In your opinion, do you think these were a darker variety of the red tailed hawk or just juvenile bald eagles? Is it strange for 7 hawks to land on a beach?
Thanks!
Gabrielle