Sometimes hawks, in particular, Red-shouldered Hawks will go all Turdus migratorious, hop on the ground and nosh some slimy earth worms. There’s even video proof of a Red-shouldered Hawk eating earthworms on Flickr and there’s been discussion about this on MD bird listserv.
This discussion about red-shoulders comes up from time to time and it throws people off, “Wait, hawks are raptors, they should be going for meat!” But a lot of birds of prey like to sample the lighter fare on the invertebrate menu: kites and small falcons eat dragonflies, screech-owls eat beetles and even Swainson’s Hawks will follow a tractor to get grasshoppers that are kicked up.
Red-shouldered Hawks are opportunists and in my mind, whenever weird hawk diets are reported, before I read the article, I always place an imaginary bet with myself that the culprit is one of these guys. They embody “opportunity” whether it’s using a new food source or eating bugs. Above is a photo Art Drauglis captured of a red-shoulder making off with meat put out for Marabou Storks at the Washington D.C. Zoo. I’ve heard of parks in Florida that have red-shoulders who have figured out how to grab chicken pieces off of grills as an easy food source. When I worked at a wild bird store, one of my customers had her own Red-shouldered Hawk feeder. She would put out a chicken thigh a day (or sometimes a frog) on a wooden tray feeder and the hawk would immediately come down and take the food. The hawk associated her as such a reliable source of food, that she could call her name for it and the hawk would fly in and await the food.
I headed over to Cornell’s Birds of North America online to see what they had in their notes about the diet of Red-shouldered Hawks. I was surprised to find that the diet and foraging habits of the hawk are not well studied–hello grad student project! Here’s one of the most common hawks in urban areas (and one of the prettiest) and it needs further study! Although, they are kind of noisy buggers, so I could understand the reluctance to work with them.
I’ve seen red-shoulders go for snakes, rodents, bugs, birds, frogs and once a garden hose (although I’m sure it thought it found a huge snake).
What kinds of things have you seen a red-shouldered hawk go for?
I have seen Red Tails try to “kill” a plastic bottle, a bag of chips and a glove that was on the ground..very funny!
I had a pair of Shoulders nest in a woodlot behind my house a couple years ago. They fledged two chicks on what appeared to be a diet of almost entirely Bullfrogs, and some impressively big ones too.
They are good at fishing too! Check it out
http://birdlightwind.com/2011/06/27/redshoulder-fishing/
It also jumped into a 10 inch deep pool of water to snatch up a red-legged frog.
Holy cow, everybody go check out Walter’s cool photo of the fishing red-shoulder!
Red-Shoulders are amazing. I’ve seen them fishing before Walter, phenomenal experience!
Great photo, I was watching a red shouldered just yesterday. Nice post.
Here is a photo, taken at Loxahatchee NWR in Boynton Beach. of a pale (Florida race) Red-shouldered Hawk devouring a snake. <href="http://www.birdspix.com/Species%20folders/Red-shouldered%20Hawk/Red-shouldered%20Hawk%20eating%20snake%20cr.jpg"
I have found a Red-Shoulder Hawk baby that cant fly yet I am feeding it dog food and chicken but not sure if it can eat it cooked? and can it eat pangasius fish? I take it outside to make it fly of my hand but can only go a couple of feet and towards the ground : (
I think if you copy and paste the fol following should bring you to the picture on my Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4245163772634&set=a.1161720368476.2024220.1391831924&type=3&theater
I had leftover cooked turkey legs, so I put them outside for the opossums. In the morning, I saw a red tailed hawk swoop down, sit on the leg, and proceed to tear pieces off. It stayed 15 minutes before flying off with the turkey leg! I didn’t know hawks ate cooked meat. Maybe I’ll try putting some raw chicken legs out and see if it returns.
I have a video of two red shouldered hawks eating cooked duck meat and a deer carcass. It seems they eat carrion.
Last year we had a Red Shouldered Hawk show up in our yard in NC. A few months later it acquired a partner. The adults are gone but they left behind two chicks that are half grown. They have become like family as we watch them grow, as they stay in our backyard all day. Ours are eating grub worms constantly as we have a bad grub worm problem. So, not only are they fascinating, they are ridding out yard of grubs. yah!!!!
I was recently taking photos for my Instagram account when I saw a juvenile red shouldered hawk with a small duckling. I was amazed to see this and was lucky enough to get a photo of it. Hawks are an amazing bird.
Last year two red shouldered hawks nested high in our back yard and raised two chicks. What a racket they all made. Some are still around all year. I hope they nest here again. I am going to work with geting them to come down for chicken. They DID eat worms from the yard, as well as several snakes and a few plump doves .
We had a pair of red sh. hawks nesting in a tree above the house. I have seen them take squirrels, snakes, worms, lizards, lots of lizards, mice, sardines from the can, boars head hot dogs, leftover rotisserie chicken and stew beef that was beginning to rancid. We feed leftovers to the dogs. The squirrels that were taken were small juvenile ones. The adult squirrels are more cautious. The 3 chicks are now flying on their own but still rely on momma bird. Once I did seem that all four were pack hunting a squirrel high in the tree, but the chicks let the squirrel get by them.
We have 3 to 4 different red shouldered hawks that visit us every year. We call one of them “the catcher” as he/she will fly down and catch pieces of hot dog as I throw them in the air. It’s very cool. I have a big pine tree in the back yard and they always come to that tree and sit on the same big branch.
Awesome!!
I have fed 2 Red Tailed Hawks for 5 yrs this is my 6th year I only feed them in the winter only 2 come I think they are a pair one is larger than the other Have never seen their young come with them I feed them Chicken thighs Wings Drum sticks Sometimes Beef that is marked down also Turkey Thighs Drumsticks Turkey wings are too heavy to fly away with I really enjoy them they come easily in morning They come on Soccer Field and sit in Telephone Pole waiting for me to come across field to toss them something and I come back inside and they fly down fly away with food
This is so cool and yes I just saw one of our red shouldered hawks, hopping about in the rain, eating worms off the ground. The Spring rains are bringing up the worms and this hawk noticed. Normally the hawk goes after squirrels, rabbits and birds at our bird feeder like mourning doves.