Red Tailed Hawk
For anyone who has ever driven around North America, there is a good chance that they have seen the continent’s most common raptor – the red tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis. These raptors, or birds of prey, are commonly found along roads, highways and farm fields in both rural and urban environments. They range from Alaska to Panama and are common in every state except Hawaii. The red tailed hawk is a large bird. Adults weigh between 2 and 4 pounds and reach 18 to 26 inches tall. Their wingspan is impressive, typically exceeding 4 feet. They have a brown topside and a white underbelly with a band across the middle. Adults also possess the signature red or rust colored tail.

Red tailed hawks are monogamous frequently breeding with the same partner for several years. They mate in early spring when they can be seen performing acrobatic aerial mating rituals. In April the female lays 1 to 5 eggs that are off white in color with cinnamon brown specks. Both parents help with the 28 day egg incubation. After hatching, the female usually stays in the nest caring for the young while the male hunts for food. The young chicks learn to fly when they are about three weeks old and start learning to hunt for themselves at about six weeks. On for the biggest challenges for the young red tailed hawks is learning to hunt mice, rabbits and other prey. They have high mortality their first year or two and most never survive to their second birthday. However, those that make it out of the critical first two years can live over 20 years.

The primary food of red tailed hawks is small rodents accounting for up to 85% of their total diet. To fill out their menu, they also eat rabbits, reptiles, snakes and other medium sized birds. Favored red tailed hawk habitat is at the edge of forest and fields or prairie habitats, since their favored prey lives in fields, meadows and prairies where they can escape aerial predators in the forest.. In fact, their preference of edge habitat is why red tailed hawks are so prevalent across North America. More roads along with residential and commercial development in unfragmented forests greatly increases edge habitat. Consequently, red tailed hawks are one of the few species that tend to increase in numbers along with human development. This was not always the case though. As with most large birds, red tailed hawk populations were severely depleted by the historical use of DDT that weakened their eggshells. Also, their propensity to kill poultry drew the ire and gunfire of farmers who referred to called them “chicken hawks.” However, red tailed hawks also provide the essential rodent control that reduces crop losses. Today more than ever we understand the important role of not only the red tailed hawk, but all birds of prey, in the balance of nature.