Hawks

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Hawks, like Eagles, Falcons, Osprey, and Owls, are birds of prey.

Northern Harrier

(Circus Hudsonius)
Medium-sized hawk with long tail and thin wings. Flies with wings held in a V-shape, low over open fields and marshes, listening for rodents lurking below. Distinctive foraging behavior and conspicuous white patch on rump in all plumage's. Females and immature s are warm brown. Adult males gray above and whitish below with black wingtips. They can often be seen during the winter months in the same hunting habitat as the Short Eared Owl and will fight with the owls for prey.


Northern Harrier (Circus Hudsonius) - © Ken Czworka

Sharp-Shinned Hawk

(Accipiter striatus)
Sharp-shinned Hawks are small, long-tailed hawks with short, rounded wings. They have small heads that in flight do not always project beyond the “wrists” of the wings. The tail tends to be square-tipped and may show a notch at the tip. Females are considerably larger than males. Adults are slaty blue-gray above, with narrow, horizontal red-orange bars on the breast. Immature birds are mostly brown, with coarse vertical streaks on white underparts. Adults and young have broad dark bands across their long tails. Sharp-shinned Hawks are agile fliers that speed through dense woods to surprise their prey, typically songbirds. They do not stoop on prey from high overhead. They may also pounce from low perches. When flying across open areas they have a distinctive flap-and-glide flight style. Sharp-shinned Hawks breed in deep forests. During migration, look for them in open habitats or high in the sky, migrating along ridgelines. During the nonbreeding season they hunt small birds and mammals along forest edges and sometimes at backyard bird feeders, causing a wave of high-pitched alarm calls among the gathered songbirds.

Sharp-Shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) - © David Malak
Sharp-Shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) - © David Malak


Coopers Hawk

(Accipiter cooperii)
A medium-sized hawk with the classic accipiter shape: broad, rounded wings and a very long tail. In Cooper’s Hawks, the head often appears large, the shoulders broad, and the tail rounded. Adults are steely blue-gray above with warm reddish bars on the underparts and thick dark bands on the tail. Juveniles are brown above and crisply streaked with brown on the upper breast, giving them a somewhat hooded look compared with young Sharp-shinned Hawks' more diffuse streaking. Look for Cooper’s Hawks to fly with a flap-flap-glide pattern typical of accipiters. Even when crossing large open areas they rarely flap continuously. Another attack maneuver is to fly fast and low to the ground, then up and over an obstruction to surprise prey on the other side. Wooded habitats from deep forests to leafy subdivisions and backyards.

Northern Goshawk

(Accipiter gentilis)

Red-Shouldered Hawk

(Buteo lineatus)

Broad-Winged Hawk

(Buteo platypterus)
Broad-winged Hawks are small, compact raptors with chunky bodies and large heads. In flight, their broad wings come to a distinct point. The tail is short and square. Adult Broad-winged Hawks have reddish-brown heads, barred underparts, and broad black and white bands on the tail. The pale undersides of the wings are bordered in dark brown. Juveniles are lighter brown with coarse streaking on the underparts, particularly on the sides of the breast; the tail is narrowly banded. In the West, rare dark-morph adults are completely dark sooty brown with a banded tail Broad-winged Hawks hunt small animals from perches underneath the forest canopy. They sometimes soar above the canopy or across gaps such as roadcuts. Their call is a piercing whistle on a single pitch. Broad-winged Hawks live in forests and spend much of their time underneath the canopy. On migration they soar along coastlines and mountain ridges, often in very large flocks.

Broad-Winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus) - © David Malak

Red-Tailed Hawk

(Buteo jamaicensis)
Most common roadside raptor across much of North America. Often perches atop telephone poles, light posts, and edges of trees. Incredible variation in plumage's, including less common dark morphs and various regional differences. Eastern adults have brilliant reddish-orange tail and pale underparts with obvious band of dark marks across belly. Western birds are typically darker. Immature s do not have a red tail.

Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) - © Ken Czworka
Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) - © David Malak


Rough-Legged Hawk

(Buteo lagopus)