Red-tailed Hawk

Identification

A broad-chested, broad-winged buteo, 45–65 cm long on a 110–140 cm span. Adults are dark brown above and creamy below, with a band of dark streaks across the belly that reads as a horseshoe from in front, and a warm brick-red tail that lights up when the bird banks. The most dependable mark at long range is a dark patch on the leading edge of each underwing near the shoulder — it survives on both the pale and the chocolate-brown morphs and is the fastest way to rule out other soaring hawks.

Most hunting is done from a perch: a utility pole, a dead cottonwood, a highway sign, from which the bird drops onto voles, ground squirrels, rabbits and snakes. It also rides thermals in slow, flat-winged circles over fields and roadsides. Pairs frequently inherit the same stick nest in a tall tree, on a cliff ledge or on a building cornice for years, adding material each spring until the structure becomes a bulky platform. The territorial call is the dry, rasping scream that descends in pitch — the sound most films attach to Bald Eagles instead.

Juveniles wear a finely banded brown tail and lack the red, so check the pale, unbarred flight feathers and the belly band before deciding. Winter is the season to look for them: northern birds move south and the species becomes almost unavoidable on fence posts and poles along rural roads. Fall migration concentrates birds along ridge lines, where they pass as broad dark V shapes with a tail that still glows reddish against the sky.